Hotel Victor Papa
by TheShadeOps
Summary: When an accident teleports Twilight to a strange new land, she finds herself immersed in a side of life she never thought she would see. - "ShadeFic". MLP AU, MW AU, "ShadeVerse" AU. Language and themes.
1. Prologue - Crossing Over

**So, hey guys. Trying something different. Those who know me, this is me expanding into something new, inspired after seeing similar pieces like this. This isn't exactly canon with the other ShadeFics, but I will make references to them from time to time.**

**Those who DON'T know me, I'm TheShadeOps, and this story will feature my (somewhat established) OC, Sgt Thomas "Shade" Williams. Further info can be found in my other stories, mostly "The New Arrivals".**

**Anyway, enjoy the story guys, let me know what you think.**

**FYI - Italicised dialogue is spoken in Russian, translated to make the story flow better.**

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><p><em>Golden Oaks Library, Ponyville, Equestria<em>

_More power, more power..._ The thought ran through Twilight Sparkle's mind as she channelled even more of her magical flow to cast the spell she had spent the entire week preparing to use. The spell, a long-distance teleportation spell, was known only to be used by the greatest magical minds in all of Equestria, including her mentor, Princess Celestia, and her idol, Starswirl the Bearded. She was bound to complete the spell, as a way to test the abilities she had gained after becoming an alicorn, as well as bring back some of her idol's magic to the modern world. She had purposely held off from using any form of spell for the last week, building up her magic reserves in an effort to get the maximum output for this spell.

She was on the brink of completing the spell when she caught a glimpse of movement in her peripheral. The figure, a small baby dragon, had entered the room with a scroll from who she presumed to be the Princess herself. That realisation sent a surge of panic throughout Twilight's body, and resulted in a surge of magic that flowed to the spell. It didn't take Twilight long to realised that the surge had messed with the spell, and she had no idea to what the new spell might do.

"Spike! Run!" She screamed, as her body became encapsulated by the aura of her magic. In the second that followed, she vanished in a bright white flash. As the light faded, the space that Twilight was standing in had emptied, leaving a very worried Spike standing behind the ajar door.

Twilight had been knocked unconscious by the effects of the spell. She didn't know that her long distance teleportation spell had in fact worked, but instead of taking her to the Crystal Empire, which was her planned destination, it had taken her to an entirely different star system. She also didn't know that the surge from her panic had resulted in a morphing spell to be cast alongside the teleportation spell, changing her from her pony form into a form that matched the inhabitants of the world she had been transported to. Those, these would be the last of Twilight's worries when she woke.

When she did eventually wake, she found herself bound and gagged in a dark room, with the only light coming through a small window high in the far wall. Still drowsy from her ordeal, she looked around, but stopped after she felt a different shift in her weight than she normally felt. Looking down, she nearly freaked at what she saw. Instead of her regular lavender equine form, she had morphed into a pale-skinned, fur-less bipedal form. She methodically looked over as much of her new form as she could, trying to piece together how this could of happened, and more importantly, what she was now. The mirror that was across from the room helped in her analysis.

_Think Twilight. Bipedal, no fur, strange looking extremities on the ends of the major limbs, mane restricted to the top of the head, rounded head with small protruding snout where the nostrils are, thin neck, no tail, wings or horn. Two... other extremities on the torso, reproductive organs located on the lower torso with no visible concealment available._

Running through the possibilities in her head, she thought back to her studies on mythological creatures. She also recalled some of the stories she heard from the resident conspiracy theorist back at her home of Ponyville, Lyra. She was obsessed with one theory in particular, about how there was another race that existed on another world, and how the Equestrian government was taking measures to conceal any information about it.

_What had she called them... humans? Her ramblings on their descriptions match my appearance in a number of ways... maybe it's just a coincidence, or a side effect of the spell. Maybe I'm just –_ Her thoughts were cut off as she heard a number of shouts from above her head, through the ceiling. They sounded masculine in nature, and they sounded angry. Whatever it was, Twilight hoped that their anger would not be directed towards her. It was then that she could make out a dull thudding noise in the distance.

Her attention was dragged away as another 'human' ran into her room, its body language showing signs of panic. She looked at it and took in every detail she could: the sock it wore over its head, showing only its eyes and mouth; the multi-coloured but drab looking pattern on its clothing, the top and bottom being of different coloured patterns; the strange looking saddle bags it wore across its chest, and how disorganised it appeared; the strange looking tool it held in its hands, a series of tubes and boxes attached to each other. It moved to close the window, blocking the light and stopping the room from being seen from the outside. Then it turned to her with its tool pointed at her. Despite the fact that she did not know what it was or what it did, she felt intimidated and scared by having it thrust at her.

_"__Is this all your doing?"_ It shouted at her in a strange sounding dialect. She took a moment to realise that she and it did not share the same dialect, even though she looked like one of their species. She gave a look of confusion, trying to hint that she could not understand it. It shouted again. _"__Did you lead them to us?"_ Another strange sounding phrase, completely unintelligible to Twilight. She thought of a way to make it more obvious, before it shouted at her once again. It was mid-shout when a loud bang erupted from the ground above them, followed up by a series of shorter, louder and higher-pitched bangs. Twilight could barely make out voices in amongst the noise.

"First deck clear!"

"Second deck clear!"

"Stack on the door to the cellar, that's where the cache is!"

The new voices spoke her language, but each had a different accent to the other, and different to hers. She looked back at the human in front of her, and through its mask she could clearly see the terror in its face. For a moment, she felt sorry for the being, having shared a similar experience only moments before. That was until it dragged her off the ground and lifted her in front of itself, pointing her towards the closed entrance to the room while being led slowly backwards. It was using her as a shield of sorts, to protect itself against the voices upstairs. She could make out some dull thudding noises behind the door, before a sharp clicking noise followed. Twilight closed her eyes, and held her breath.

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><p><em>That same time, aboard an MH-53 Pave Low III,<br>500ft above eastern Ukraine, DPR-controlled territory._

The squad of twelve men sat in silence during the low-level flight towards their target. Each man wore his preferred uniform and equipment, albeit with small items and patches that every one of them wore. The most obvious item that they all wore was a small light-steel grey patch that bore a skull, winged sword and wreath over the top of the spade shape from a deck of cards. The insignia was worn by the best operators and warriors that the planet had to offer, after they were selected from the rest of the best. When they wore that patch, where they came from did not matter. Rivalries need not matter, for under that insignia, they were brothers.

"Ok team, we're about ten mikes away from the drop zone. Expect light resistance upon disembarking. Remember, we go in, eliminate all hostiles and recover all of the materials. It's the least we can do." The team leader shouted over the loud engine noise in his thick Scottish accent. He wore a earpiece connected to a throat microphone, his head uncovered and showing his closely cut mohawk. He wore a grey tactical shirt and Multicam patterned trousers, with a plate carrier covered in an array of pouches and other accessories. Captain John Mactavish was a figure that demanded respect in the mere way he acted and appeared. As the field commander for the Task Force, he appeared and fought in every high-risk or high-level mission they were assigned.

Along the sides of the chopper sat the veteran operators of the 141, one could say that they were the best of the best of the best. Each man had his own style, his own way of fighting. As individuals, they were fierce, but as a team, they were unstoppable. There was Lieutenant Simon Riley, known as Ghost by the rest of the 141, he was the team's second in command as well as field interrogator. Give him a car battery, a pair of jumper leads, and an uncompliant prisoner, and you are guaranteed results.

Beside him sat Sergeant Brian "Meat" Tanner and Sergeant Mark "Royce" Roycewitz, a pair of operators recruited from the Canadian Special Operations Regiment. Meat was the team's resident translator, while Royce served as the group technician. The pair of them were closer than blood brothers, always beside each other's sides at base and in the field, ready to get each out of, and sometimes into, mischief and trouble.

Across from them sat the sniper/spotter team of Staff Sergeant Steven "Archer" McBride and Sergeant Todd "Toad" Cane. Archer had served in the Royal Marine Commandos as a sniper, become somewhat renowned in the Corps as a remarkable shot and extremely reliable whenever he was called to provide cover. Whenever troops heard that he was watching over them, their morale lifted. Toad used to be Delta Force as a squad marksman, and had worked his way into being assigned as Archer's spotter when the sniper noticed the man during selection. Archer had taken the man under his wing and became his personal mentor, since then, the two have the same kind of relationship that Meat and Royce have, without the mischief.

Beside them sat another group of men: Sergeant Tyler "Jayhawk" Chase, a former Navy SEAL assaulter; Senior Airman Nick "Chemo" Brent, recruited from Pararescue ; and Sergeant Matt "Scarecrow" Graves, a Delta Force gunner. The three of them had been recruited in the same intake, and had been drawn together as a result. When they first met, the natural inter-service rivalries had shone through, with the typical insults being hurled to each other on a standard basis. However, after a training exercise turned ugly, the three had to rely on each other to survive. Now they were very tight knit.

Down the end of the helicopter, at the ramp, sat the last three members of the team: Sergeant Gary "Roach" Sanderson, Sergeant Jayson "Rook" Cooper, and Sergeant Tom "Shade" Williams. The two Australians and one Brit formed one of the best squads that the 141 had to offer. Roach's experience as a demolitions expert, Rook roll as a grenadier and Shade being an assaulter made them a hard hitting strike element, perfect when mass destruction was required.

The crew chief of the helicopter stood up from his seat up near the cockpit and made his way to the tail, in preparation to deploy the ramp. As he made his way, the soldiers started making their final checks on their equipment, loading and chambering rounds into their weapons, checking communications and entry tools, preparing grenade pouches. Each man stood up and readied themselves for the impact of the touchdown, slightly bending their knees and gripping onto the overhead rails to brace and absorb the shock.

The wheels hit the ground, the ramp opened up and the twelve operators quickly disembarked the cargo bay and took up positions around the helicopter. Each man had their weapon raised and ready to shoot, looking for any threats to their transport. Slowly, the helicopter lifted up and away, commencing a lazy orbit around their target as the team made their way to the target building.

Pro-Russian rebel forces in Ukraine had, after months and months of fighting, been finally halted by a NATO defensive line east of Kiev. The rebel forces had thrown everything at NATO to break past, but the allied forces would not give. Air strikes and long-range artillery had decimated rebel forward posts, and slowly their forces were being pushed back. Small compounds like the one that the Task Force were raiding served as resupply points for rebel infantry and vehicles, and also served as traps for the allied forces should the rebels be pushed back beyond that point. When detonated, the building essentially became one giant fragmentation grenade. By the time that NATO commanders in the theatre had realised the threat this posed, a number of these outposts had already taken a substantial number of lives, both through the initial detonation and from the numerous secondary explosions the stored ammunition generated.

The team had a little less than fifty meters to go before rebel fighters camped out in the building opened fire. They stood no chance as Archer returned back with precision fire from his marksman rifle, a Mark 20 Sniper Support Rifle. The rounds it fired easily punched through the light brick the rebel shooters were hiding behind, and in no time the route to the house was secure.

Shade and Rook reached the ground floor door first, with Captain Mactavish and Roach right behind them. Meat, Royce, Ghost and Chemo circled around to the external stairwell that led to the second floor, while the remaining members took up security positions around the building, prepared to fight off any approaching re-enforcements. Mactavish nodded to Shade, who let his rifle hang from its sling as he pulled a small kicker charge from the back of his vest. After he prepared the adhesive side, he carefully placed the explosive waist high on the door, off centre towards the lock of the door. He pulled a small tab on the charge, and threw it to the ground. The four operators stood back a few steps and waited.

With a loud bang, the charge detonated and blew the wooden door to pieces. The shrapnel generated flew into the rebel that was standing right behind it, killing him instantly. The shockwave left the remaining four fighters dazed, giving enough time for Shade and Rook to quickly kill them without them able to fight back. The four men quickly swept the room and checked for any nasty surprises, before Rook called out loudly for them all to hear.

"First deck clear!" A few seconds passed before Ghost shouted from the rooms above them.

"Second deck clear!" Mactavish gestured over to a small set of stairs leading to a closed door, calling out the instructions to his men.

"Stack on the door to the cellar, that's where the cache is!"

Shade was the first to reach the door, a smaller doorknob charge in his hand. The confined space made using a larger kicker charge dangerous to use when the breachers were directly behind it. The doorknob charge used a smaller explosive to blow the door from the lock, the force generated enough to swing it open. After Shade hung the charge around the knob, he gestured for the team to take a safety step back. He pulled the primer tab, and stepped back, his rifle up and ready to go.

With a sharp click, the charge fired, opening the door with enough force to move it out of the way. Shade had barely taken a step inside before he sighted against the two figures in the room. Time slowed down as the trained man took in the scene before him: two people, one behind and offset behind the other; first person young and unarmed, visibly distressed by the way their eyes were closed and muscles had tensed; second person older, armed with a hand gun, aimed towards the first person's side, eyes showing surprise and fear; first person is clearly a hostage of some kind, being used as a shield.

As Shade was making this realisation, his arms had already moved his rifle to aim directly at the hostage-takers head, which at this point was well clear of the shorter and younger hostage. By the time Shade's processes had completed, all he needed to do was pull the trigger. Which he did, sending a single five point five-six millimetre round straight into the rebel's face, killing him near-instantaneously. His body fell away, leaving the hostage still standing, frozen in apparent fear, with their eyes closed. The entire ordeal had been over in a matter of seconds.

Rook was literally a step behind Shade, and swept to the right of his team mate. His view fell upon the multiple crates of explosives and ammunition against the wall, but saw no other rebels. Roach had mirrored Rook's actions, clearing Shade's left side. Shade kept his pace as he moved straight past the hostage to secure the rebel's body, while Mactavish followed right behind him to perform a final all-room sweep.

"Clear!" He shouted, walking over to Roach as he started to prepare a handful of C4 demolition shape charges. Shade had cleared the rebel's weapons and secured the body, before turning around to face the hostage. They were still frozen in fear, their eyes closed tight and their stance locked, the shock of the entire event still under effect. Shade looked at them and started to take in more details, details that he had missed during entry.

Firstly, the hostage was female, and was completely nude. Not a single scrap of clothing could be seen on her, and a quick glance around the room failed to turn up any discarded pieces of clothing. Secondly, she looked young, estimated around her very late teens to her very early twenties. Thirdly, her skin tone and shape would have been more common to see in a college in the US, not in a contested warzone in Eastern Europe. Shade began to run through a few worst-case scenarios in his mind as she stood up and slowly made his way to the girl. He reached out and gently placed a hand on her shoulder, an attempt to bring her out of her state.

But the second his gloved hand brushed against her, she jumped and spun around, tripping over the leg of the body and falling to the ground, hard. The force of the fall knocked her out cold, leaving the four highly trained Special Forces operators with a new problem; what to do with her. They had no idea that she would be there, nor had any idea how she had indeed got there in the first place. But as they lifted the stretcher carrying her into their Pave Low, they knew that they would get their answers soon enough.

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><p><strong>And so is the end of the prologuefirst chapter of Hotel Victor Papa (points to who can figure out what means/can mean). I hope you enjoyed this, I actually enjoyed writing it. It's a bit more serious straight out of the bat, in comparisons to what I've written previously. Still, what I think and you guys think is different.**

**Thanks again, TSO out!**


	2. 1 - New World

**I'm back with a new chapter for HVP, I apologise in advance for any slips in grammar/English, part of this was written around midnight with me listening to nothing but EDM, Linkin Park and rap, measures that keep me alert enough to function at midnight.**

**This one is a bit slower than the prologue, but (I hope) it'll set the score for later chapters.**

**OH! Also another note: I'll be writing this from a shifting third-person, if that makes sense. It'll be third-person, but written in two different "perceptions", with the understandings and knowledge of each character underlying the section. That's why Twilight's sections seem more descriptive than Shade's, and why she seems more analytical than Shade, as she's processing all these new experiences, while Shade is more straight-to-the-point (it'll be more evident in this chapter, you'll see what I mean). Hope that clears it up.**

**Enjoy!**

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><p><em>One day later,<br>Task Force One-Four-One Headquarters, undisclosed location in the central United States._

The girl looked peaceful as she slept on the bed in one of the few wards located in the base's medical facilities. Her head had been bandaged up to cover the small gashes she received when she hit the hard floor of the cellar. She had yet to come around, but from what Chemo had said earlier, and the base doctors had confirmed, she had transitioned from being completely unconscious to being in a deep sleep. He had pointed out that her body was showing signs of extreme fatigue, like she had gone days without sleep, and now she was catching up on it. Thankfully, she had not been seriously abused by the rebels; they had only kept her restrained in order to keep her in the cellar.

Captain Mactavish had made the call into command, berating them for not telling them about the hostage. They had replied that the rebels never took or kept hostages; they either executed who they captured, or sent them back to where they came from in short order. Her presence there was against their standard methods of operation. During their brief stay in Rammstein Air Force Base, Ghost had taken the fingerprints of the girl and ran them against every known database that the Task Force had access to, which was practically every database out there. No results were returned, raising more questions about the girl.

Chemo, during his physical evaluation of the girl, had found a strange tattoo on her lower back. It consisted of a pink star, surrounded by smaller white stars. Ghost had a picture of that tattoo sent to command, in an effort to try and narrow down what it might mean. One of the guys had said that it looked cartoonish, like something a children's show would have. Whatever it was, it didn't resemble anything like the tattoos that various insurgents, criminals and terrorists wore. It just further added questions as to who she was and how she ended up in Ukraine.

Shade looked at the girl again, trying to figure out and answer the multiple questions in his mind, before leaving the room, leaving the girl by herself. Hopefully she would wake up soon and answer some of their questions.

The first thing Twilight noticed was that she was laying down on a soft surface, with a blanket covering her from the neck down. Slowly looking around, she saw that she was in a small, off-white coloured room, with various pieces of medical equipment taking up places on the walls. _Maybe I just hit my head at the library and had a bad dream._ She looked down at herself, and noticed her human form. _Okay, maybe I just had a dream in a dream. That's possible, right?_ She felt around her body, her fingers brushing against the bandage wrapped around her head. The memories from before flooded back to her mind: the tool being thrust in her face; being held as a shield; the explosion; the strange looking human placing its limb on her, a concerned look on its face.

Her thoughts were interrupted as a human entered the room. It was dressed in what could be interpreted as a uniform, a strange pattern across the human's top and bottoms, a large red cross on the human's arm. _This must be a doctor or nurse._ As it walked to the end of her bed and picked up a chart, Twilight studied its features. She noticed straight away that her shape was similar to her own, meaning that this must be another female of the species. Her thoughts were confirmed when the doctor/nurse spoke.

"Well, did you have a nice rest?" The human spoke with a motherly tone in her voice, an attempt to make Twilight feel more comfortable around her. "Allow me to introduce myself; I'm Medical Specialist Second Class Myers. I've been assigned to keep an eye on you and watch your recovery."

Twilight had to give her some dues, she certainly felt more comfortable with her around. She thought for a second, and decided to see if she could answer some questions that had arrived in her mind.

"Thank you Medical Specialist Seco-" Twilight was cut off as Myers held her hand up to stop her.

"Please, just call me Nurse Myers, or Nurse. You don't need to call me my rank or anything, otherwise we'll be here all day." She chuckled, a smile forming on her face.

"Okay then, Nurse Myers. I have a few questions for you, you think you would be able to answer them for me?" Twilight asked, an expectant look forming on her face.

"I'll answer the best I can, darling." The term instantly reminded her of her friend Rarity, and on closer inspection, the nurse's attitude somewhat matched that of Rarity's. Pushing the thoughts aside, she asked her first question.

"Well, what happened to me?"

"I don't know all the details, but I do know that you've been asleep for the past day and a half. From what I heard, the boys found you in a house they were raiding. One of them scared you so badly that when you tried to run away, you tripped, fell down and smacked your head into the ground. That's where you got that nasty cut on your head. Chemo had told me that you were showing signs of heavy fatigue, so he asked us to let you sleep off as much as you could. Other than that, you're physically fine." Myers looked down at the clipboard to double check her statement.

_That explains the bandage on my head and why I feel like I've been asleep for days._

"Ok. Next one, where am I?"

"Well, there are a few parts of that I can't answer, because it's secret. What I can tell you is that you're in the hospital of a military base in the United States of America. I can't go into specifics with you, for security reasons." Twilight opened her mouth to contest, but the nurse continued. "I know that it doesn't exactly calm you down, but it's for the safety of everyone here." Twilight could understand that fact, but regardless of that she was determined to find out. Now just was not the time.

"Well, that makes sense, I guess." A word that the nurse had said earlier popped back into Twilight's mind, and she wanted to know what it meant. "Earlier you said that 'Chemo' said that I looked fatigued. Who or what is a 'Chemo'?" The nurse paused for a second, before she started giggling a bit.

"Oh, forgive me. I forgot for a second that you were a civilian and assumed you knew who that was. Chemo is the medic on the team that brought you back. I don't remember how he got that name though..." The last part struck out with Twilight.

"Wait, so his parents didn't name him?" She said, worry in her voice.

"Yes and no. Yes, his parents named him, but no, not Chemo. The team gave him that name after he joined, it's a nickname. Speaking of him, I need to go inform him that you're awake. If you have any issues, don't be afraid to call out." The nurse smiled at her again, then began to walk out. But she stopped suddenly, turning back around to Twilight. "Forgive me, but I never asked what your name is. What is it?"

Twilight panicked a bit, she was unsure if these humans had similar naming conventions to her home. Opting to place it safe, she answered.

"Twilight, my name is Twilight." The nurse smiled again.

"Such a pretty name, your parents picked well." She exited, leaving Twilight to herself once more, a multitude of thoughts and feelings rushing around her mind.

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><p>Shade was with Rook and Chemo at one of the base's instruction rooms, where operators came to learn the theory behind the tactics and tricks they were all taught and practised upon joining the Task Force. The three of them were discussing the effects of different breaching charges against the human body, Chemo explaining the percussive effects in detail to the two Australians.<p>

"... so you see, the strip charge really only creates a loud bang, equivalent to a flashbang, just not as piercing. Instead of the high-pitched whine or whistling sound, you get a deeper boom with a lower resonance. And it's only the bang that disorientates at the greater range, there's no bright flash unless you happen to be focused on the door at the time, the odds of which can be unpredictable."

"But Chemo, say you did have an entire room of bad guys waiting for you at the door, the detonation would be enough to buy us a few seconds to either enter and start shooting, right?" Shade had asked, looking over some of the notes he had taken down.

"Again, that depends on the charge you use. If it's one of the frame or kicker charges, then yes, it will daze them enough to get a few extra seconds. But anything smaller will only be enough to open the door straight to a chest full of lead." Chemo stated, finishing with a sigh. "That's why it's common practise to combine an explosive breach with a flashbang or frag', because then you get that extra kick to knock them around, or thin the crowd out."

Rook looked up from the list of projected injuries that Chemo had brought with him, a thought popping in his head. He interrupted the medic with a cough and started drawing down a diagram of his explanation. "What you two realise is that you are breaching through doorways, a natural chokepoint and predicable entry for any assaulter. If you want to disorient them, you run a dynamic breach and blast through a perpendicular wall to where you would normally enter, situation permitting. Most of the times if the bad guys know you're coming, they are watching the door. Coming through the wall in a shower of timber or brick ahead of you is enough to both disorient them and possible incapacitate them." Rook turned his diagram to face the two men, their faces studying it intensely. Chemo spoke up first.

"Well, taking into account the debris that could be generated from the breach, you would most certainly injure, if not kill, whoever is immediately behind that wall. The rest could suffer from smaller injuries caused by the impact of the shrapnel on them."

"Rook, you forget to account for one thing," Shade started, a slightly negative tone in his voice. "Firstly, we risk compromising structural integrity when we breach a wall. Not to mention pipes and electrical wires that might be hidden in there. I don't particularly want to get sprayed or shocked before I go shoot a group of bad guys. Secondly, we'd only be able to do a breach like that if the building in question was both owned and operated by the enemy, or if the building had no real purpose. We can't go breaching through walls in buildings that are going to be reused, such as city skyscrapers and such. Sure bullet holes and doors can be patched and replaced, but it's a pain to rebuild walls. Thirdly, the amount of explosive needed to breach through a wall isn't exactly safe to detonate when you're standing about a meter and a half away. I don't want to die to my own explosives, and I'm sure the rest of us will agree with that."

Rook was about to retort when a woman dressed in Multicam-patterned medical scrubs entered the room. Chemo recognised her instantly as one of the nurses from medical, MS2 Cassidy Myers, and stood up to greet her.

"What's up Cass?" Shade said, smirking, before Chemo could open his mouth. It was no secret that Chemo had a thing for the nurse, maybe because she was the few people that Chemo could truly 'geek out' with, or the fact that the two of them were so closely matched as far as personality was concerned. If you never met the two of them before, and saw them talking, you could be forgiven for thinking that they were a couple.

"Nothing much Shady, just here to tell you that our guest has woken and appears to be fairly well." She replied with a smile, chuckling at Shade's reaction to her nickname for him, a nickname that he detested. "I figured since you were the crew that brought her in, you would want to know first. I'm going to go find John and let him know as well; if you intend on talking to her before the Captain starts planning to remove her, now's the chance to do so." She turned and walked out, heading towards the administration complex of the base. Chemo and Shade both looked at Rook, who did not appeared interested in talking to the new guest, and made their way to medical.

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><p>Twilight sat up in her bed, reading one of the few books she had managed to convince another nurse to retrieve for her. Right now she was reading a book detailing the many facets of human interaction and communication. She had glossed over a book regarding human fashion, as well as a book about recent history, the last thirty years of important events in the human world. Her progress in her current book was interrupted as two figures entered her room.<p>

The two men, as the book had described them, were fairly different in appearance and stature. The first one wore a tan tee shirt, with the letters 'USAF' imprinted on the front, and grey camouflaged trousers. His shirt was tucked into his pants, a tan belt holding them up. The fashion book had briefly covered military clothing, and from what Twilight could tell, the clothing clearly spoke as items of a military uniform. The man's black coloured hair was cut very short, almost bald, in what Twilight recalled as a 'crew cut'. His well built frame was defined under his shirt and through his sleeves, his arms remind him of her friend Applejack's big brother, Big Macintosh, though he was shorter than the second man. His face was fairly rounded, but was not hard to look at or focus on. _He must be a typical soldier or something, at a glance he reminds me of the palace guard._

The second man was different. He was not as stocky as the first man; he was taller and thinner, much taller in fact. His dark brown hair was longer, allowing a sense of personality to show. His face was longer and narrower, more defined than the first man. He wore a two-coloured long sleeve shirt, a forest-green filling his sleeves and the tops of his shoulders, while a darker green covered his torso. One of his sleeves bore what looked like a flag, below it the letter 'O' with a negative sign beside it. His pants featured more pockets than the first man, with a pair of kneepads sewn into the pants, the pattern on the pants made up of a number of brown, green and black blotches on a light green base.

He noticed Twilight looking him over, and smiled at her. Not a cheesy grin, just a small acknowledging smile, enough to say 'I saw you'. Twilight blushed as she realised this, and looked down at her sheets to cover it.

"So, from what I can see and tell, as well as gather from your chart," begun the first man, "is that you were suffering from major case fatigue due to intense physical exertion, as well as a few minor cuts due to a fall you had when we found you." He looked up from the clipboard he had read from. "What we don't know, and would like to find out, is how you ended up there, and where you're from." The man finished bluntly. His voice sounded a bit harsh, but had a slight drawl to it, similar to her friend Applejack, just not as severe.

"What my friend here means is that we would like to talk to you about what happened. Try to get an understanding about who you are and what happened, and try to get you back home." The second man's voice was distinctly different, a bit flatter yet softer than the first man. He spoke with a soft smile on his face. "That is, if you can actually remember anything that happened." Twilight pondered over what he had said, trying to think of the correct response. _If I tell them I used to be a pony and was teleported here during an accident, they might think I'm crazy. Maybe I should feign partial amnesia; it'll give me more time to work out what to say._

"Well, all I remember was being in my home and then waking up in that house before you found me. I can't recall anything else." Twilight spoke softly, injecting a not-exactly-fake sense of sadness into her speech.

"Well, maybe you can tell us something easier to remember, like your name?" The second man asked.

"I, uh..." mumbled Twilight. She recalled her discussion with the nurse from earlier. "My name is Twilight. I know it sounds strange, but my parents were the eccentric poetic type." She smiled weakly at them, and they nodded in understanding. The first one spoke up.

"Well, if you remember anything at all, don't hesitate to call someone. If you need me, ask for Chemo." He turned and walked out of the room, leaving his companion alone with Twilight in the room. She watched as he dropped his head and sighed. She was about to ask him what was wrong when he started speaking.

"I apologise for his attitude. He can be a bit blunt at times, especially to newcomers and civilians. I guess it comes from his time in the PJs." He put his hands in his pockets as he looked back to Twilight. "Don't think that it's personal or anything. He sometimes distances himself from people he treats or saves, a self-preservation of sorts." Twilight could understand what he was talking about. At times, her brother Shining Armor would become distant from his closest friends if something bad had happened, or if they were scheduled to deploy to troubled lands. She knew he was trying to protect himself from the reality of military service.

"I can understand that, my brother used to do the same thing." She said without thinking, instantly wishing she could retract her words. The statement caught the man's attention.

"Really? What does your brother do?" He asked, genuine interest showing. Twilight searched for a way to generalise what her brother did as a job, avoiding ways that might generate follow-up questions.

"He helps protect the leaders of my country. He leads a group of guards, and is dedicated to his service. I haven't spoken to him for a while though." She put on a face that gave the impression that she did not wish to talk about it much more. The man seemed to get the hint, and changed topic.

"Oh, I forgot my manners completely. I'm Tom." He said, holding his hand towards Twilight. "Though, around this place, I go by the name of Shade." Twilight took his hand in hers, and he shook them. _This must be some kind of greeting or gesture of respect. I wonder why he's called Shade?_

"That's okay Tom, or Shade, it's nice to meet you. But, why do you call yourself Shade?"

"It's a name I earned during my time with the 2nd Commando Regiment, back at home in Australia. It's a long story, I'll have to tell you some time when you're free."

Shade looked at the girl a bit closer this time, and noticed that her expression looked a bit forced. _She must be thinking about something else, maybe she's hiding something._

"Twilight, I'm going to level with you here. I've been a soldier for some time now, and I can tell when someone is hiding something. I get the impression that you're hiding something right now. Care to tell me?" Shade watched as the girl, Twilight, froze with a look of shock on her face. Her eyes darted from side to side, a typical tell of someone who has been busted and is trying to think of a lie, or an escape.

"Why, I'm not hiding anything–" Twilight started to show signs of panic "– why would think I'm hiding something? Do you not trust me? Why would you not trust me? Is it because I'm a girl? Do you not trust girls? Did a girl break up with you, is that why you don't trust gir–" Shade had to resort to covering the girl's mouth to get her to stop.

"Twilight, stop. The way you're acting does not help your case here, now I know for sure you're hiding something." He removed his hand and stepped back from Twilight. "Just tell me what it is, it'll be better for you if you tell me willingly, trust me."

"I... you'll think it's stupid and think that I'm crazy." Twilight muttered, loud enough for Shade to hear.

"You obviously haven't met Meat, Roach and Rook yet." He looked at the blank expression on Twilight's face. "More of my friends. Trust me, they're pretty crazy themselves. At this point, nothing you could say could surprise me." Twilight sighed, looked down and then looked back up at him.

"I'm not actually a human."

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><p><strong>And that's the first "official" chapter to HVP, since the first was more of a prologue. I hope you guys enjoyed this, as always, review and favfollow if you want. I'm not greedy.**

**TSO out!**


	3. 2 - New Faces

**Hey guys, TSO here with the new chapter for HVP. This is a little longer, but reads a little dry (to me anyway). Not to fear though, the action will start to build up soon enough.**

**If you want to get a better idea about who Shade is, I suggest reading the other stories (The New Arrivals and Threat Level at a bare minimum).**

**With HVP, I am finding it a little difficult to try and justify why Twilight would be allowed to stay on base, as well as take part in what I have planned later, so that's why some parts might feel drawn out a little.**

**Anyway, that's what I think about this at least. Let me know what you guys think about it in a review or something. Every little bit helps.**

**Enjoy!**

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><p><em>Half an hour later...<em>

"So, let me get this straight. You are actually an alicorn pony, originating from a world that is populated by a whole lot more of you ponies, and your kind in particular can harness magic and wield it for everyday use, as well as fly. And when you were casting one of those spells, a magic surge messed with a teleportation spell, sending you here, morphing you into one of us in the process?" Shade summarised the story that Twilight had told him over the past half-hour.

"When you put it like that, you make it sound like something a crazy person would say." Shade had to suppress a chuckle. _You don't say..._ Twilight's voice brought him back to the present. "You seem to be taking this well. I'd have thought you would actually freak out or something."

_No kidding..._"Well, after seeing and doing the kinds of things I've done, your capability to be freaked out gets numbed. Besides, with what little information we can get about you, your story seems to be somewhat believable. And I don't see any reason to not believe you. Though, let's just keep it between us for now."

"Why?"

"For your own safety and wellbeing, for starters. Chances are that the bosses will send you away to a loony-bin or something, write you off as insane. And we don't want that, do we?"

"I guess not." A low rumbling noise caught the attention of the two in the room, Shade chuckling and Twilight turning a shade of red.

"I guess all that magic, captivity and recovery has left you pretty hungry, right?"

"You guessed right, uh... Tom, wasn't it?"

"Just call me Shade. It'll be easier if you do. Now, I'm going to hazard a guess and assume that the only clothing you have is that gown you've got on?" Shade asked, going a light shade of red in the face.

"Well, yes, but the nurse also gave me a pair of 'underwear', if that's what you're concerned about," reassured Twilight, having noticed Shade's slight embarrassment. "But don't they serve food here?"

"Only if you want to eat mush. If you want decent food, you can come with me to the mess, I'll just need to get you some clothes." Shade grabbed the chart and studied Twilight's measurements, committing them to memory. "Give me fifteen minutes, think you can wait that long?" Twilight nodded, and Shade left the room, headed towards supply. _Hopefully they have clothes small enough to fit her._

Twilight sat on the edge of the bed as Tom, or 'Shade' as he preferred, left to get her some clothes. The sensation of being left alone allowed her to reflect on current situation. _So, I've made one friend, if you could call him that, on this world. While hesitant to accept what I told him as truth, at least he hasn't disregarded me outright. He seems like a nice man, clearly means well. If it wern't for his profession, which I can only assume to be as some kind of soldier, he would be a very valuable member of society. Not that his service isn't valuable at all, but his mind has clearly been partially corrupted by the horrors of this world, whatever they may be._

_I must admit, he doesn't act like a lot of the guards back home. They always seemed too solitary, too withdrawn, much like Tom's friend, 'Chemo'. But Tom, he's different._ Twilight slowly stood on her two feet, noticing immediately how much higher her viewpoint was when compared to her natural form. The feeling of standing upright on two limbs felt strangely natural to Twilight, despite the fact that as a pony, she had never needed to stand in such matter. _Maybe the morph altered my natural instincts and skills. I'll have to keep that in mind for later._ Slowly, she started to walk towards the window in the wall. At first, she could not see outside as the bright light briefly blinded her. But as her eyes adjusted to the light, she quietly gasped in shock at what she saw.

From her view in the base hospital, she could make out a number of grey-coloured structures, each with different sizes and styles, alluding to their uses. One of the buildings resembled a warehouse, while two others looked like apartments. _They must be the living quarters and storage buildings._ Twilight gazed at each building, before noticing the activity that was being carried out around the place. To her left, she could identify a large flat clearing, covered in tarmac. Strange objects sat on them, some with humans standing on ladders beside them. To the right, she could see a batch of humans standing in a formation, while another pair of humans paced around in front of them. _Those must be recruits, but they look older than what I suspected recruits to be. Maybe they have a different aging process._

The sound of movement behind her caught her attention, and she turned to find Shade at the door, a set of clothes in his hands.

"I apologise in advance if they don't fit well, or if they are too big, we don't normally have people of your stature." Twilight watched as he walked over and placed the items of clothing on her bed. She walked over and lifted one of the items, a long-sleeved shirt, as Shade walked to the window to see what she was looking at. "Hm, looks like Ghost is working with Meat to break in the newbies. I suppose you'll want to meet them?"

Twilight nodded as she looked at the shirt in great detail. It was similar to Shade's, but instead of two greens, it had a light grey torso section with a brown-green pattern running across the shoulders and sleeves. The pattern looked stretched out when compared to the pattern on Shade's pants, and appeared lighter in tone as well. She put the shirt down and picked up the pants, noticing immediately that they had the same pattern as the sleeves on her shirt. She also recalled the nurse wearing the same pattern on her uniform. The construction of the pants matched those of Shade's, with gaps where the kneepads were supposed to be. _Maybe they're an optional feature._ Lastly, she looked at the pair of footwear that sat beside her shirt, coloured in a dark tan with thick laces and soles. _He's given me a uniform to wear, maybe he intends to draft me into their ranks... no, he just wants me to blend in and not draw too much suspicion. It's probably the only outfit they have spare to give me anyway, not like Rarity is here to help. Oh, Rarity would have a fit if she saw me wearing this._

"Twilight?" Shade's voice dragged Twilight back to reality, and she stammered a response. "Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I assume that clothing wasn't really a major matter where you came from, what with being a pony and everything?"

"Personally, it didn't matter to me. However, the high society types, and my close friend Rarity, were commonly seen in all kinds of clothing, usually dresses and suits though. I think the most I've worn was a dress for one of the galas held in Canterlot."

"Okay... short answer would have helped, but I'll take that as a 'no, clothing didn't matter', and follow up with my next question. Would you like a hand getting dressed? The shirt is pretty straight forward, it's just the pants and shoes that you might trick up with." The question caught Twilight off guard, and she instantly felt hot in the face.

"I-uh-I mean, uh... I'm sure I can figure it out myself. It can't be that hard, can it?" She finally said, managing a weak smile when she finished. "Besides, aren't there rules or customs or something that forbid that kind of thing?" Shade stood silent for a minute, before shrugging and looking out the window.

"I mean, this unit is mostly all-male, with a few female support staff. There aren't any official 'rules' regarding male-female interaction, since the majority of female staff are in medical or administration, and we men only go to them if we're hurt or need something signs. But there are universal rules that everyone knows to abide by." Shade paused to let it sink in to Twilight, who nodded in understanding. "Besides, I'm only offering my help to you for two reasons: You looked lost when you were holding that shirt, but that could have been you thinking; and you'll find it hard to explain to a nurse why you can't get yourself dressed." Twilight stood there for a few seconds, rather perplexed by the scenario at hand.

"Well, while I appreciate the offer, it shouldn't be too hard to figure this out. I'm not a complete novice when it comes to clothing; this is just a different form and style to what I'm used to wearing. Now, if you wouldn't mind leaving me to get dressed, unless it's customary for the male to watch the female dress." Shade smirked and chuckled at her assumption, she wasn't completely wrong.

"Only if you're married or helping a child, Twilight. Let me know when you're ready." Shade left the room, leaving Twilight by herself again. She looked at the collection of clothes on the bed, and decided on a plan of attack. _I guess I'll work my way from the top down._ Recalling what she had read in those fashion books from earlier, she widened the collar on the shirt, unzipping it all the way. With that done, she slipped her head through the hole, and then slipped her arms through the sleeves. Shade had done a good job at picking the size, though the sleeves were a little long for her arms; the fingertips hidden by a few centimetres of cloth. She quickly worked out how to fasten the wrists on the sleeves, and fixed the overhang problem in no time.

Twilight then picked up the trousers, undoing the waist and fly on them before sitting down on the bed. She slipped on the trousers, pulling them up to just above her waist before she zipped up the fly and fastened the button. _They feel a little loose, probably a little big for me._ Feeling around the waistline of the pants, she found two pull-tabs towards the back. She peeled them from the fabric surface and pulled them away, which pulled the waist tighter on her. Twilight reattached the tabs, satisfied that the pants were no longer loose.

The socks were straight-forward to put on, since they were a fairly common article of clothing worn in winter. Getting them around her ankle proved a slight challenge, but not as much as the shoes she had to put over the top of them. In the end, Twilight spent ten minutes before calling Shade in to help her. He admitted that he was surprised that he got the sizing as close as possible, and less surprised that Twilight had managed to put the uniform on.

"Okay, if you're ready to go, let's eat." Shade said as he led Twilight out of the room. Twilight looked around as they walked through the wards of the base hospital, glancing through open doors and reading a few of the posters and notices on the wall. It did not take long for the pair of them to exit the building and find themselves on a pathway leading to the mess hall. As they walked, Twilight absorbed the various sights and sounds that were indicative of activity in the base. The group of men that Twilight had seen from the window had disappeared, leaving a myriad of marks and scrapes on the dirt ground where they had been. A loud roaring sound rushed over her head, and she caught sight of another one of those things she had seen in that flat part of the base, clear of the buildings. She looked at Shade, who had not bat an eyelid at the object. _What am I thinking; he's probably seen that thing millions of times._

The two of them stopped at a pair of doors at a small-ish building at the end of the large accommodation building she had seen earlier. The noises inside were muffled, the doors being the only visible entrance on this side of the building. As Shade opened the door, Twilight took in the sight of a large number of different men seated at various tables, each one at various stages of eating their meal. Shade stopped for a second as he appeared to be looking for something..._ or somepon- somebody, by the looks of it. I suppose he is looking to socialise with his friends._ Sure enough, Shade spotted the two other men he was looking for, and quickly led Twilight to their table. Shade sat her down and walked off, saying something about fetching their food.

Twilight looked at the two strangers in front of her, who in turn were looking back at her. The first one was as tall as Shade, but a bit bulkier and had short cut sandy hair. His uniform was similar to her own; however the black and white blotches on his uniform appeared sharper and curved more than her own. His sleeves were also rolled up, allowing Twilight to see his well-toned arm muscles, something that she had also noticed on Shade and that other man, Chemo. The second man was shorter, but just as well built. His clothing could not be defined as a uniform; his shirt was a simple white collared shirt, and he wore a pair of rough-textured blue pants. His hair was a bit longer than the first man's, but shorter than Shade's, and was spiked up at the front.

"You goin' to stop starin' at us, lass?" The rough voice asked, making Twilight jump from surprise. She hadn't realised that she had in fact been staring at the two men intently. Twilight noticed that the sand-haired man was looking right at her, his expression showing that he expected a response.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Just not every day you get to see this kind of thing." She smiled weakly as she felt her face getting warm.

"Fair enough, at least it's good to see you up and about." Another voice, similar to Shade's, spoke. Twilight matched this voice to the other man, and turned to face him. "You were pretty touch and go on the chopper ride back, or so it appeared anyway. Chemo said you were just out of it, but it looked worse than it was. Oh, here comes trouble." The man smirked as he looked up and behind Twilight, who turned to find Shade standing there with two trays in his hands.

"Mate, you should stop talking about yourself like that." Shade said, smirking back at the man as he sat down beside Twilight and placed a tray in front of her. The food looked vaguely familiar to her, however it did not appear very edible. "Twi, I tried to get stuff without meat in it for you, but there wasn't much to pick from. Had to go with quantity over variety, sorry."

"Thanks Shade, I appreciate the thought." She picked up a utensil, something she had only done with magic in the past, and attempted to use it to eat. After a few missed starts, she finally figured out the utensils and was eating the food in no time. The four of them ate their meals in relative silence, but once they finished, the spiky-haired man spoke up.

"So, Shade, you going to introduce us?" He turned to look at Twilight, and proceeded to cut Shade off from his retort. "Hi there, I'm Jayson, and the grouch beside me is Gary. We're friends of Tom, or Shade as you apparently know him by..." he trailed off.

"Please to meet you two. I'm surprised though, I thought you two had names like Shade did?"

"Oh, we do, I just figured it'd be easier to know our real names. Everyone here calls me 'Rook', and they call Gary 'Roach'." He watched as the look of Twilight's face transformed into a look of confusion, as she tried to reason why they had those names.

"Shade tells me that each of you have these nicknames for a reason. He won't tell me his just yet though. But how did you get yours?" She propped her head on her hands, like a child eager to listen to a story.

"Well," Rook began, clearing is throat. "I was probably one of the more inexperienced recruits to the Task Force. Most guys here had at least two or three deployments before being recruited here. Me, I hadn't even been deployed once. I guess my extra-impressive scores from SASR selection led me to be picked for this unit. Anyway, when that got shared around the others in my intake, I got assigned the name 'Rookie'. As time passed, that just got shortened to 'Rook', and that has stuck since."

Twilight nodded as he took a sip from his drink. She was somewhat disappointed by the story, expecting it to be something special. If she was going to be honest, she was under the impression that these nicknames were earned in a manner similar to cutie marks.

"As for Roach here, well, he can tell you." Rook nudged him in his side, and Roach cleared his throat to begin.

"Well, I got my name after my many misfortunes during training back home in the SAS and during my training here. It's tough work, and many times when I tried to complete the objectives, I would hurt myself in various serious ways. Some injuries actually had me risk my place in the unit. Every time, the medics would refer to me as the 'human cockroach', since I was nearly impossible to kill. The guys here heard about that name, and shortened it to Roach. I still live up to that name from time to time."

"So Twilight, what do you think of the place?" Rook cut in, gesturing around himself.

"Well," Twilight paused, thinking of a way to conceal what she was. "It's unlike anything I've seen before. I'm still getting used to all this."

"What do you mean? No military presence where you live?"

Shade cut in. "While we were walking here, Twilight said that she grew up in a country town far from the capital. One of those 'everybody knows everybody' places. Not that she hasn't been exposed to military life before. What did you say your brother was again?" He looked at Twilight and gave her a small wink.

"Well, my older brother, he's part of the guard, he made Captain, actually." She gave a small smile as the memory of her brother's promotion replayed in her mind. "No doubt he's probably looking for me though."

Rook was about to speak up again when a loud buzz played from the speakers fitted in the mess hall. A voice, mixed with static, spoke through the room.

_"__Team Hotel, please report to briefing room nine. Team Hotel, briefing room nine. That is all."_ The three men around Twilight got up from their seats and took their trays over to the bins. Shade gestured for Twilight to follow him, which she did. For reasons she could not figure out, she found herself not wanting to be left alone in this place.

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><p>Fifteen minutes later, Twilight found herself sitting in a dark room with eleven other men. Shade, and his friends Roach and Rook, sat up the back with her, while the others filled seats in front of them. Twilight had been talking with Shade about the differences between the men in what they wore, especially the small markings they wore on their sleeves. What she had learnt shocked her a bit. <em>These men come from different lands to fight together and to fight against a force called 'terror'. No wonder they all act and sound different from each other. <em>Shade told Twilight that he and Rook came from a land called 'Australia'; two men known as 'Meat' and 'Royce' originated from 'Canada'; 'Toad', 'Jayhawk', 'Scarecrow' and that other man 'Chemo' came from the 'United States of America'; and that Roach and the two others they were waiting for were from the 'United Kingdom'.

Twilight was about to question the reason why they fought when the door off to the side opened. When she saw who entered, she felt herself become very nervous and on edge. The first man looked like he had seen better days, his face bearing a few visible scars such as the one across his left eye. His hair was cut into a narrow channel on the top of his head, the rest of it shaved to stubble that blended with the stubble across his face. He wore a simple white tee shirt with a pair of Multicam combat pants, with something in a pouch strapped to his right leg. The man looked intimidating enough just by looking at him.

The second man simply scared Twilight. He was a little shorter than the first man, but just as bulky. He wore a tan shirt with Multicam combat pants, wearing a strange looking vest over the top of the shirt, the vest covered in pouches and other items. A set of pouches were strapped to each of his legs, the pouches and vest matching in colour. However, the thing he wore on its face was what scared Twilight. He wore a black mask over his head, a set of cups sitting on each side, over his ears. He wore a set of red-tinted glasses, concealing his eyes. But his mask featured a white design on the front, the shape of the design resembling something close to a skull, complete with teeth. The look of him was terrifying.

The first man with the strange haircut walked to the front of the room and faced the rest of the group.

"Alright team. We need to properly debrief after our last operation. Normally we would have done this after we returned, but given the circumstances, it had to wait. You should all know the drill now, so this shouldn't take long." Twilight listened to the strongly accented voice, not noticing the three men beside her standing up and moving to the front of the room. "We'll take it from the top. At zero-eight-thirty hours local, we disembarked Angel 2-1 and proceeded to the target."

A man to the right spoke up. "At zero-eight-forty we made first contact with rebel forces. I exchanged fire with threats on the roof of the target structure. By zero-eight-forty-two, roof contacts were cleared and we proceeded to the entrances of the structure."

Shade then jumped in. "Zero-eight-forty-seven, Rook, Roach, Hotel Six and I stack upon deck one entrance while Meat, Royce, Ghost and Chemo move around to external stairwell to clear deck two. Deck one team made an explosive breach into the complex, eliminating five rebel fighters.

The man Twilight recognised as Chemo started talking as Shade finished. "Deck two team encountered three rebel fighters, one wounded from Archer's earlier fire. All three fighters died of wounds inflicted by the team."

Shade continued on with his part. "By zero-eight-fifty, both teams had cleared the immediate area, when Hotel Six instructed team one to commence a breach into the cellar deck. Upon breaching, I encountered one rebel fighter with one civilian hostage at gunpoint. I neutralised the fighter with extreme caution, and secured the hostage."

"At that same time, Rook and I cleared the remainder of the cellar and commenced the search for the objective. Once the hostage was secured and evacuated from the structure, we placed demolition charges on fifteen minute time fuses. Fuses were armed at zero-eight-fifty-five." The grouchy man known as Roach stated.

The man who started the discussion closed it off. "At zero-nine-hundred, Hotel team was extracted with one civilian hostage by Angel Two-One, with the structure demolished at zero-nine-ten. BDA indicated that the structure was completely levelled with no materials recoverable." He looked over at Chemo and gave him a small nod, and Chemo pulled a small notepad from his pocket.

"The only blue injuries sustained were a slight earache from close proximity detonation of a breaching charge, sustained by Sergeant Thomas Williams. He recovered from injury about thirty minutes after extract." Twilight watched as he flipped over a page and began reading from it. "Civilian hostage had no formal identification on their person, nor could any be found in the structure. Hostage was female, age approximated at twenty years old. Hostage appeared to be suffering from mental and physical fatigue, exacerbated by the stresses imparted during the rescue. She suffered a mild head injury when she collapsed after being secured by Sergeant Williams. Hostage remained unconscious for the remainder of the operation and was placed into medical care upon return to base."

"Have we found anything else about this girl? Any family or friends to contact?" The man, who Twilight had dubbed 'the leader', spoke. Shade raised his hand to get the leader's attention.

"Sir, if you don't mind me interjecting, the girl woke up earlier today. We had a talk about what she knew and what happened, you might want to listen to what she has to say." The leader let out a small sigh as Shade continued. "I brought her along to the debrief, maybe we can work out a plan of action after she tells you guys what she told me." When Shade finished, he stood up and walked over to where Twilight sat.

"Twilight, you can trust me when I say that these guys will do what they can to help you. I've got your back one hundred percent of the way."

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><p><strong>How will the rest of Hotel Team (what I have dubbed the core group of 141 members) react to what Twilight has to say about where she came from? Will they be as opened minded as Shade, or will they start doubting the sanity of their own friend?<strong>

**Find out in the next chapter!**

**TSO out!**


	4. 3 - Revelations

**Hey there guys. TSO here once again with a new chapter of HVP. Not as big or as interesting as before, but I promise it will be building up soon. Keep the follows/favourites/reviews coming. If anyone here is a half-decent artist, I am inviting you to make some fanart for this story. Can be anything, like Twilight and Shade with Roach and Rook in the mess, or maybe what Twilight would look like in a combat uniform. Humanised of course.**

**Enjoy!**

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><p>The twelve men in the room were some of the best soldiers the world has ever seen. Years of training and combat have made their impression on them, having exposed them to some of the worst and the weirdest that the world order has to offer. Everything from children being used as suicide bombers, mass graves being used as latrines, shootings at major population centres, and even the wrath of an angry Ghost wearing a mask with a cartoon character's face on it; these men have seen and heard it all.<p>

That was until Twilight had completed sharing her back-story and what he recalled of how she ended up in the rebel weapons stockpile. For the first time in a long time, the veterans of global counter-terror were speechless, stunned at the revelations of what they had just heard. One of them managed to find the capacity to speak up.

"So, you're a magical pony-turned human. Your kind harness magic and wield it for everyday use. An accident occurred when you were casting one of those spells, and the result of said accident had you end up here looking like one of our own." Royce surmised, still trying to wrap his head around the fact. "No offense lady, but are you sure you're feeling okay after that fall?"

Twilight sighed at his remark, somewhat expecting resistance to the truth. Before she could respond however, Chemo stepped up and held a small light into her eyes.

"Pupils seem to react as normal, and she appears to have full range of mobility, not to mention that she's fully coherent. But I'm no shrink, so I can't judge her mental capacity in regards to sanity." He said as he looked Twilight over. Shade stepped in and spoke up.

"Guys, we can't prove her story, but we can't disprove her either. I say we give her the benefit of the doubt for the time being, and look after her until the time when she is able to return. I mean, from what she told us, her being missing would probably become a big fucking deal back in her home."

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><p><em>The Royal Palace, Canterlot, Equestria<br>That same time..._

"I want every Pegasi squadron we have, active and reserve, mobilised and searching every square hoof of Equestria until we locate Twilight Sparkle. I also want all of the Unicorn brigades to utilise every known tracking spell we have to assist the Pegasi in their search, maybe we can narrow down the search area. All Earth Pony divisions will be on standby in the event that we need to recover Twilight by force, and to cover for the other two forces during this operation." Captain of the Royal Guard, Shining Armour relayed his instructions to his subordinate unit commanders, pacing the room in clear yet controlled distress. "The second anypony finds or discovers anything related to her whereabouts, I want to hear about it. Understood?"

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><p>"Odds are that over in her magical world, they're working around the clock to locate her. When they do, they'll come and get her." Shade finished, looking down at Twilight. Meat looked to Twilight as well, a look of thought on his face.<p>

"All this story is good and all, but unless you can prove that you are magical or something, I'm not going to buy it." Meat crossed his arms, and looked to the rest of the men. "You guys agree? If she is who she says she is, then she should have no problem proving it."

Twilight looked to Meat, and then up to Shade, a worried expression on her face. Shade looked back at her with a look that matched Twilight's. He pulled Twilight up and walked her over to the back of the room. Twilight was about to question him but Shade cut her off.

"How could I be so stupid? Why didn't I think of that before?"

"Think of what before?"

"When you told me that story, I bought it all," began Shade, anger creeping into his tone of voice. "If you really are magical, you should have no problem using whatever magical ability you have to prove it. I should have asked you to do something back in the ward, before I let you out and showed you everything." His grip on Twilight's arm was tightening, causing her some minor pain and stress.

"I don't know if I can prove it. Back in my alicorn form, I would use my horn to channel my magic. I don't have anything of the sort, so if I still retained my abilities, I would have nothing to focus it through." Twilight said, the pain in her arm getting worse. "Shade, it's starting to hurt, please let go." The grip on her arm loosened, but did not disappear.

"So, if you wanted to cast a spell or something, you would need something to focus it through, something attached to your body..." Shade trailed off, looking at Twilight's body for something that she might be able to use as a substitute for a horn. When he reached her hands, an idea form in his mind. "Say, you would have used for magic to do menial stuff, like writing or lifting things, right?"

"Anything I couldn't do with my hooves, I would use my magic for, including writing."

"So, say you wanted to use a pencil or quill to write. Could you break down the spell for me?" Twilight thought for a second, Shade's idea still not making sense to her.

"Well, I would first focus on the item I'm manipulating and then I would channel the actions I needed through the manipulation spell. My mind would think I'm holding and writing with the quill, but in reality the spell is doing the work for me."

"So, you focus on an object, and 'will' it to do what you want. I see." He turned his head and looked at the men across the room. "Twilight, your hands, they might serve the same purpose as your horn, if you get what I mean. You actually might have more control with them, from what I can only assume."

"How so?" Twilight was legitimately stunned by Shade's statement. "Can you use magic?"

"No, but it's a big thing in fiction. Some magicians use enchanted wands linked to their bodies, others channel their ability through their body itself. We don't have any wands here, but you might be able to use your body, your hands in particular." Shade reached into his pocket and pulled a notepad from it. He set it down on the small table in front of them, and then looked at Twilight. "Now, this is going to sound weird, but I want you to pick up that notepad without actually picking it up. Extend your arm and hand, like you were going to reach out and pick it up, but don't actually touch it. Focus on it and think about picking it up."

Twilight thought about his instructions for a minute, his plan starting to make sense in her mind. Following what he said, she reached her arm and hand out towards the notepad, but did not step in or move to pick it up. Instead, she focused her mind on the object and imagined herself picking it up. As she did so, she felt a slight tingling feeling in her hand, and noticed that her hand was now bathed in a dull pink glow, forming a kind of glove around her fingers and palm. Seeing this, Twilight focused harder on the act of picking up the notepad, lifting her hand slightly as if she was levitating the notepad. To her and Shade's surprise, the notepad started to glow pink and began to lift up from the surface of the table. Twilight's eyes widened at the realisation that she still had some of her magic, while Shade started to grin like a maniac, firstly at the fact that his idea was working, and secondly at the fact that Twilight was indeed who she said she was.

Twilight experimented with her ability, twisting her hand and wrist around, the movements also affecting the rotation and angle of the notepad. She raised a second hand and started to manipulate the notepad in more ways, such as opening it up and flipping through random pages, her second hand glowing just like her first. She even ripped a blank page out of the back and was able to fold it neatly. Shade just stood there awestruck at the entire act, and as Twilight set the notepad back down on the desk. Twilight looked up at him with a huge smile on her face, matching Shade's smile.

"Twilight, that was amazing. You've convinced me completely now. Think you can do it faster, because I know how we can convince them." Shade leant down to whisper into Twilight's ear, detailing his plan to her. With a nod, the pair of them walked back to the group, where Meat was now talking about his exploits on their recent period of leave. Seeing the pair arrive, he interrupted his own story telling.

"So, the pair of you figured out how she's going to prove that she's some magical being from another world?" He asked sarcastically, complete with a smirk.

"Well, actually yes." Replied Shade, who was now focused Meat's plate carrier. Twilight followed his gaze to a particular pouch on the side of his vest. "Meat, can you take out your radio for me?" Meat paused for a second, unsure of Shade's motives, but then moved to take the radio out of the pouch it sat it. He held the radio in his hand, showing it to Shade. "Twilight, could you please get the radio from Meat?" Twilight nodded her answer, then held her hand out towards the radio in Meat's hand, still sitting in her seat beside Shade.

Meat stifled a small chuckle at the scene unfolding before him. "You know you have to get..." He trailed off as the radio was enveloped in a pink glow, matching the glow of Twilight's hands, before the radio slipped from his hands and started floating towards Shade, Twilight's glowing hand guiding it across the gap. Meat and the rest of the men watched in shock, Ghost had lifted the sunglasses up from where they sat to ensure he was not actually seeing things. The radio slowly settled into Shade's lap, where the glow faded out, Twilight and Shade smiling at the clearly shocked group of men.

"But... but... you... magic...radio..." Meat started to stammer as Shade held the radio aloft in his hand, sharing a high-five with Twilight.

"Is that enough proof for you?" Twilight said with unheard confidence and strength in her voice. The man known as Captain Mactavish stepped forward and looked at Twilight with a serious expression.

"I guess we'll have to take your word. Do us a favour though and keep that magic skill a secret. Can't have the bosses finding out otherwise we'll have a bunch of lab coats descending on the base with you in their sights." He crossed his arms, and looked at the clock on the wall. "It's getting late, chow time is approaching very soon, and we have training scheduled for tomorrow. Twilight, Shade, if neither of you have any objections, then you will be sharing a room for the duration of Twilight's stay."

The two of them looked at each other, small but nervous smiles on their faces as they processed what the Captain had just said. "You take the bed, I'll sleep on the small air mattress that I keep for long-haul missions," Shade said as he stood up from his seat. "I'll show you the way." The rest of the men took this as the cue that they were dismissed and free to leave. Twilight followed Shade to the accommodation block, navigating through a group of newly recruited members who stood with bags and duffels by their sides. They looked at Shade and Twilight with odd looks, but assumed that it was nothing out of the ordinary.

They reached Shade's room on the second floor, the somewhat moderately sized room large enough to fit a king single bed, wardrobe, desk, bookshelf and a small footlocker. A door to the side led to the small bathroom that Shade barely used, as his tall frame made using the shower practically impossible since it only reached to below his neck, the product of shoddy design by the US Armed Forces. Given the bare essentials in furniture, Twilight found the room surprisingly cosy and comfortable. The walls were covered in various photos and posters of military paraphernalia, the occasional picture of Shade with his team out in the field on a mission, or clippings from newspapers that spoke of a group of soldiers that intervened and prevented an incident.

A few small photo frames sat on the desk, beside a small paver-sized object, the people in the photos different to what Twilight saw on the walls. One photo had Shade in the centre of a group of similar aged people, two other men and two women by his side. They were all smiling and had their arms behind each other's backs; obviously they were Shade's friends back home. The second photo had a group of men with Shade, all of them soldiers but not the group of soldiers he was with currently. A man from the first photo was also in this one, standing next to Shade with a pair of binoculars in his hands. The group were standing in the desert, in front of a strange looking vehicle of some kind.

The last photo stood out to Twilight. Shade looked a lot younger in this photo; Twilight would have guessed that it was taken about five or six years prior. He was with an older looking man and woman, and a younger man and a young girl. There were similarities between Shade, the older man and the younger man, enough for Twilight to work out that they were his father and younger brother, the others being his mother and younger sister. The sight of Shade's family in the picture reminded Twilight of her own family, and Twilight began to wonder how they, and her friends as well, were dealing with her disappearance.

"I know this place isn't much, but it's got what I need, which is all I really ask for these days." Shade said, setting down a mattress on the floor. "I'll use the showers down the hall, so you can have the one in here. I never use it because I can't fit in the damn thing, you'll probably have a better chance. I usually go lights out at midnight, but that depends on what the agenda has been and will be. The door locks from the inside, but I have a key. I'll knock if I think you're in here. If you need anything, don't be afraid to ask, I'll try to get for you." An idea popped into Twilight's head, something that might prove useful in the future, especially for if and when she returns.

"You don't happen to have some paper and something to write with?"

"No, but I do have that laptop. What do you need it for?"

"I'm going to start taking a journal of sorts, something I can show my friends and the princess when I get home."

"Well, you can use that laptop if you want. It can serve as a digital typewriter of sorts; you have those back home, right?"

"Typewriters? Of course, how else do you think we make books and newspapers?" Shade walked over to the desk where Twilight was sitting and opened the lid of the laptop. Anticipating the reaction, he pressed the power button, bringing the laptop out of its perpetual state of hibernation. Shade never shut it down fully unless it needed to update, or if he was being deployed and had to leave it behind.

The glow of the screen cast onto Twilight's wide-eyed face as Shade quickly opened up the word processor application and prepared it for the technological novice. Shade then looked at Twilight and gave her a quick rundown on how to use the laptop and processor. To say that Twilight was a fast learner would have been an understatement. After a few false starts with the lightweight keys on the keyboard, she was quickly typing at a speed that could rival most secretaries or speech dictators.

Twilight was completely enthralled by the piece of technology that Shade had let her use. She had been no stranger to the typewriters back home, where she was able to use her magic to make final copies of various reports for the princesses. The methods of how she was taught to use them did not make much sense back there, but now she found that those techniques made more sense and had better application now that she had a set of ten individual fingers. The feel of the keys were a slightly strange sensation, but the soft clattering noises that she made when she started to speed up were somewhat soothing. She began to block out the world around her, but Shade asked something that made her stop in her tracks.

"Twilight, how long do you think it will take before your friends come for you?"

The question made Twilight think long and hard. While Celestia herself might be able to perform the spell without any issues, the fact remained that they did not know where the spell sent her to. A thorough search of Equestria and the neighbouring lands could take months. How could they know that Twilight was not even on their planet anymore? And how would they know that this planet was the one that Twilight was on? The thought was sobering to say the least.

"I," started Twilight, her voice slightly cracking, "I don't know. Best case scenario, maybe five or six months. It could be much longer though, maybe a few years..." Tears started to run from Twilight's eyes as the reality sunk in. Shade saw this immediately and stepped over to comfort her.

"That's a long time, but that means that there is a chance. If there's one thing I've learnt in my time as a soldier, is that you never give up hope. Because when you give up on hope, you eventually give up on yourself." He placed an arm around Twilight's shoulders and pulled her close. "Now, you have a few options here. One: you can lament over this fact for however long it takes, letting these thoughts take hold on how you live your new life. Two: you can forget about that fact, live in ignorance until the time comes, then resign yourself to surprise when it does happen. Three, and I would choose this if I were you: Keep the fact in mind, but don't let it get to you, and make the most you can out of this experience."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, for one you are in a new world. Why not study what you can about it, and maybe compile a report about what you see and experience? Sounds like the perfect thing for the princess's star pupil, right?"

"I guess, you would be willing to help?"

"I'll help teach you anything and everything you want to know. I'm sure the guys will want to help as well." Twilight smiled at Shade, and wiped her tears away.

"I appreciate this Shade, I really do."


	5. 4 - Progression

**Hey guys, TSO here yet again. EXAMS ARE DONE! I am a free man for the rest of the year (from university. Work is another issue, but shouldn't interfere). To celebrate, here's a chapter for HVP.**

**Nothing much else to say.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

><p><em>6 months after Twilight's arrival to Earth<br>Task Force One-Four-One Headquarters, undisclosed location in the central United States._

Twilight sat at Shade's desk, typing ferociously on the laptop that she was given a few months ago. Ever since she received it, she would spent an hour after each day making notes and adding information to her growing report on her time on Earth. Shade and the rest of his team were more than willing to help Twilight out, teaching her and providing her the resources necessary to complete her report. She learnt something new practically every week, including general human history, inter-human behaviour, basic geography, basic biology, and a refresher in the English language. The latter did not make much sense to Twilight, until she was told that she was still using terms like 'anypony' when she spoke. It took some time, but she was able to kick the habit after a month.

Twilight also learnt about the things that Shade and his team, mainly the fact that they are a group of highly-trained soldiers tasked with combating terror around the world. At first, Twilight questioned the need for such a group to exist, but she was told about the acts committed by people like Osama Bin Laden, Muammar Gaddafi, and Saddam Hussein, or groups and organisations like Al Qaeda, the Donetsk People's Republic and The Inner Circle. The mere thought of those acts sent shivers down Twilight's spine, unable to comprehend such violence and terror occurring, the video footage of the Twin Towers collapsing made Twilight want to throw up, for she could see people jumping from the towers, the news footage of President Obama announcing that Osama Bin Laden had been killed left Twilight feeling relieved, the photos and news articles about gun fights and shelling in Gaza had Twilight desperately wanting to have the Elements of Harmony and rid this world of conflict. But Twilight accepted that without the Elements, these men were the best chance the world had at stopping this, or at least prevent it from getting any worse.

Alongside her theoretical study, Twilight also learnt about some of the things that Shade and his team did during missions. She had been taken for a ride in an MH-6 Littlebird, which felt way different to her flying with wings back in Equestria, for she could not control the actions the pilot made with the helicopter. All she could do was sit back and attempt to enjoy the ride. Twilight also was given the chance to fastrope from a Blackhawk, and parachute from a C-130 Hercules. She eventually jumped out of the Hercules, albeit while strapped tandem to Shade, but could not be convinced to rope from the helicopter. Ghost had taught her some basic techniques in regards to questioning people, Archer and Toad had shared their tips on how to avoid being seen, Chemo and Nurse Myers had taught her basic first aid, Meat had instructed her in the speaking of other languages, Royce helped Twilight take apart and reassemble a field radio, while Shade taught her how to shoot.

Target shooting, as it were, happened to be Twilight's most promising ability, given that she was exceptionally skilled for someone with her lack of experience or desire. After being given the mandatory safety training and weapons handling training, she was given a simple M9 sidearm to fire. While the noise and the force scared Twilight, she was able to place a full magazine worth of rounds onto the paper target at fifteen meters, with a ten centimetre grouping. When she was given a larger M16A4 rifle, and the target placed out to thirty meters, her grouping only increased by a centimetre. Archer had been impressed enough to invite her to use some of the team's specialist sniper rifles, like the M200 Intervention and Barrett M107. While she had initially disliked the excessive noise and recoil that the rifles had generated, her accuracy had come as a surprise to both the experienced snipers and Twilight herself.

The weapons that they had shown her and let her use were all immensely fascinating to Twilight, who's only experiences with projectile weaponry were Pinkie Pie's party cannons, and her sister-in-law Princess Cadence when she was thrown by her older brother Shining Armour. When she was shown the internals and the mechanisms that each weapon used to operate, she was greatly impressed with how ingenious human technology could get. Sure, other things like laptops, radios, mobile phones, cameras and other mundane objects often surprised the girl, but the firearms took it to a whole new level. It also led her to respect these weapons even more; something that complicated had to be manufactured properly, otherwise the risks of catastrophic failure increased dramatically. She also was enthralled at the fact that so many different weapons existed, each with their own differences and uses, made obvious by the many weapons the team used on their missions, and how each man had a different preference.

Twilight was touching up that particular area of her report, going through the team that saved her and describing what they did and what they used. While the men were apprehensive at first of Twilight noting down in detail what they did and what they used for their job, she had assure them that it would only be read by the princesses back in her world, where there was little to no risk of that information leaking to anyone that should not see it. The report would serve as both evidence of life on another world, and as a memory of Twilight's time with these men. She had grown close to them, and despite the fact that she stayed back at base while the men went on missions; Twilight felt like had accepted her as part of their 'family'. This was made evident by the fact that she had been bestowed a nickname, like many of the men before her.

It happened during a small survival field exercise that the men had taken Twilight on, and was somewhat at Twilight's expense. Royce was in charge of starting the small fire they had set up for camp, and had taken the opportunity to teach Twilight how humans started fires with only the barest of essentials, like a flint and steel lighter and some kindling. While the two of them were away gathering some more firewood, Meat had taken the chance to lace the kindling with a small amount of gunpowder and fuel from the ATVs. When Twilight took her place besides the kindling with the lighter, and sparked the flint, the mixture of gunpowder and fuel ignited and combusted instantaneously. The resulting, albeit small, explosion sent sparks everywhere, including into Twilight's hair, causing her to scream in shock and panic. Meat was the first one to respond, naturally wanting to inspect the aftermath of his prank. His first words to her were "Hey guys, Sparks has got the fire lit!" Since then, whenever Meat, Royce and a handful of the others saw her, they called her Sparks.

Shade explained that most of the men had earned their names in other humorous, weird or spectacular ways; like Scarecrow and his surveillance stint in a farm, or Roach and his insane ability to avoid or cheat death multiple times, or Rook with his rookie-like appearance upon recruitment to the task force. A few names were based on personality or behaviour, like Ghost and his quiet but intimidating nature, and some names were just shortened surnames or first names, like Royce with his surname Roycewitz. Twilight was fortunate that her new nickname was fortunate to be an abbreviation of her surname, Sparkle, and also be based off something that happened, the campfire accident.

"Hey Twilight, you free for a minute? We need you in the briefing room." Shade poked his head through the door to confirm that she was there before he stepped into the room. Twilight look at him and saw that instead of the usual t-shirt and cargo pants that he wore at the end of the day, he was dressed in his combat uniform and wore his plate carrier, his helmet tucked under his left arm. "Something has come up and I think you might want to see it for yourself." The sense of urgency and importance in Shade's voice tipped off to Twilight that something was wrong.

Twilight stood up from the desk and walked over to Shade, grabbing her hat on the way. She was wearing a pair of camouflage combat pants and a plain white tee shirt, with a matching camouflage cap. "You never need me for something unless it's fairly serious, Shade. I can continue that report later, whatever has happened is more important. Let's go."

The pair of them made their way to the briefing room, meeting up with Rook, Roach and Scarecrow on the way. All three of them were in their respective combat attire, and all of them had their game faces on. The apparent change in attitude was enough to put Twilight on edge, made even more apparent as they walked into the briefing room. The remainder of Hotel team sat in the room, all dressed and ready to go into battle. Captain Mactavish and Ghost stood up the front of the room, either side of a large projector screen. A video was paused on the screen, the image showing a group of three men, two of them wearing black masks and magazine holders, while the third wore dark sunglasses and a tactical load-bearing vest.

Captain Mactavish looked up from his notes and over to Twilight, and gestured for her to sit down. She took a spot beside Shade and Rook, and waited for the captain to begin.

"Glad you could join us Ms Sparkle, I apologise for calling you away from your work but I feel that you would be of better use to us here."

"It's no problem sir, I'm here whenever you need me." Twilight said with a nod of respect.

Mactavish turned back to the screen and continued. "We've been tracking the terrorist group known as the Inner Circle for a few months now. They've been rising fast, but unlike most organisations that focus on high-casualty and high-impact violence, they've opted for low-casualty high-impact. A recent string of attacks have seen members of IC kidnap and execute civilians in various cities at random, worldwide. Most attacks are unprovoked and have little to no warning prior, but have been said to been spurred on by the continued intervention of NATO in places like Afghanistan and Ukraine. Right now, IC's body count stands at thirteen. They've killed three citizens within the United States, three in the United Kingdom, two in Canada, two in Australia, and one each in France, Italy and Germany. The killings have all been brutal in some form, but one of the common themes is the act of committing the act in a public place, such as a major transit centre or in the capital area of each city. Five of the killings have been beheadings, three of them involved firearms, the rest being a brutal beating using hammers and other heavy tools or blunt objects."

Captain Mactavish switched the paused video for four other videos, smaller but set up in a grid format. He pressed the button to play them all at the same time, but without sound.

"All of the attacks were filmed on handheld devices, and each attack has a similar introductory speech before the execution."

Twilight read the subtitles that surmised the basic message from each video's intro.

_For too long have the countries of NATO and the Coalition played the role of the world's policeman. They act using excessive force, much like a corrupt officer would when overreacting to an everyday occurrence. It is time for the citizens to rise up and fight this brutality. Until NATO realises that they are no longer welcome where they are, innocent people shall die!_ The videos cut out before the final act, sparing Twilight the gruesome details. The rest of the men had seen these videos before, and knew what followed. While they did not show it, the videos disturbed them immensely.

"There has been at least one IC-related attack per month, completely randomised in method and location. Like stated earlier, we only know they are linked by their methods and declarations. There are no clear host nations for this terror group, nor are there any major figureheads. But we all knew that." Captain Mactavish brought back the original paused video to the screen. "A few hours ago, our signal snipers managed to pick up an uploaded video with ties to the Inner Circle. The video is slightly longer to previous videos and does not feature any actual execution." He played the video, Twilight and the men in the room watching the video with great focus.

Three men stood in front of the camera on video, two of them wearing full facemasks and simple magazine carriers on their chests. The third wore a half mask over his nose and mouth, leaving his eyes, forehead and thinning hair exposed. He also wore a black soft tactical vest, a pistol tucked in the cross-draw holster. He held a piece of paper in his outstretched hand, a sound that could be barely heard in the background.

_"__Attention to the leaders of NATO, specifically the United States and United Kingdom,"_ the leader started, his accent clear yet distinctly recognisable as an American accent. _"__The time has come for you to finally wake up to your horrendous acts in the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. Over two million casualties have been caused by the reckless acts of violence committed by the military forces of NATO member nations during their alleged war on terror. A great portion of those killed were innocent civilians caught in indiscriminate shelling, bombings and gunfights instigated by the Coalition. It is time for you to realise your mistakes, and for you to make the call. You have seventy two hours to begin withdrawing from all combat deployments, or we will execute one of these innocent girls for every day after the deadline, in retribution for every two hundred thousand or so casualties."_ The man gestured to someone off to the side, and the black sheet that hung behind them dropped, revealing six bound and gagged figures. Five of them were young, the sixth being significantly older. _"__We are waiting."_

Twilight gasped in shock as she studied each individual's features, recognition creeping into her mind. The five younger girls all appeared to be the same age as Twilight. One of them had wavy purple hair, still looking somewhat pristine despite the appearance of the girl that it belonged to. She was distressed but still remained composed, a worried but fearless look on her face. Another had long pink hair down to her legs, and was quite visibly distraught with tears running down her face. The third also had pink hair, noticeably shorter and much curlier. Her expression matched that of the first girl, but also seemed distracted, her arms twitching at random intervals. The forth had long blonde hair, pulled up into a pony tail. She wore a tattered hat on her head, the brim covering the top part of her face. The last girl wore rough looking rainbow-dyed hair, her expression that of determination and defiance, occasionally moving to break her restraints.

The last person was an older looking woman, Twilight would have to assume that she was the same age as some of the men she was with. Unlike the other girls, her expression was calm and thoughtful, as if she understood the gravity of her situation but was not letting it affect her emotions. She was acting calm but strong for the sake of the others. Her hair was perfectly straight, but swayed slightly in the evident breeze in the room, the colours of pink, aqua and blue blending perfectly.

Twilight could not comprehend it, yet she knew who exactly they were. She had failed to notice that the video had paused on the shot of all six of them, with Captain Mactavish watching her with a slightly amused look on his face.

"But... but how..." was all Twilight could manage before Mactavish walked over and rested a hand on her shoulder.

"Ms Sparkle. I would ask you if you knew who they were, but your reaction confirms my suspicions. Still, for your own sake, can you please tell us who they are?" Twilight broke her focus and looked at the man now crouched in front of her.

"Those are my friends."

* * *

><p>Princess Celestia sat in the dark and cramped storage room of the warehouse that her and the five remaining element bearers had been brought to. In front of her were Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, their bindings and gags removed. Rainbow held Fluttershy in her arms, desperately trying to comfort her greatly distraught friend, while Applejack looked around the room for structural weaknesses in the room, something she could strike against to create an escape route. Rarity absentmindedly fiddled with the bare sheets on her small bunk, while Pinkie Pie just lay there on her own bunk, staring up to the bare ceiling.<p>

They had spent at least a month on the planet, after spending the previous five searching around their own world for any trace of Twilight Sparkle, who seemingly disappeared without a trace after a magic-based accident. After four months of aimless and hopeless searchers, Princess Celestia had completed going through Twilight's notes on her recent work. After inspecting the room that Twilight had cast the spell in, she had detected the faintest residue from the ill-fated spell, and in turn had managed to trace Twilight to this land. After an additional month of re-learning old spells, and researching everything that could be found about this land, she and Twilight's five close friends made the jump from their own world as ponies to Twilight's new world as animals called 'humans'.

They had arrived in a country known as the United States of America, in a city known as Denver. The five girls and one woman spent the next month adjusting to the new environment and culture, eventually managing to blend in with the local population. To their relief and intrigue, their unique hairstyles had not caused them any trouble, and in fact had gathered some acknowledgement from other young human females that they had encountered during their travels. The lack of proper identification and funding did cause them some problems with the local law enforcement, however with a few spells cast using Celestia's retained magical ability, they were able to avoid any serious penalties.

On one fateful day however, their journey along one of the town's main roads was cut short, as a group of armed men in a van halted beside them and forcibly dragged them away in broad daylight, the men rendering the girls unconscious using chloroform and other anaesthetics. When they had regained consciousness, they all found themselves restrained in a dark warehouse-style building. The group of men that had kidnapped them watched over them, giving them little in the way of food and water.

Celestia had recalled how they were recorded on a camera, the leader of these men speaking a message of warning to the recipients of the footage. She silently wished for whoever the video was for, that they would act and free them. She at first wanted to use her magic, and had attempted to do so at one point. The reaction of the men had been brutal, to say the least. Her hands remained bound and fixed in plaster, and the bruising on the back of her neck left a painful reminder for her to not try anything like that again.

For the first time during their ordeal since Twilight went missing, Celestia felt truly hopeless. Back in Equestria, she could have magically summoned the guard to wherever she may be, and be back in relative safety in time to lower the sun. Here, not only was her magic restricted, she had no way of communicating for help. The Elements of Harmony were not an option, for the fact that the five with her were not in the mental and emotional state to use them, and that one of the elements was missing outright.

Celestia lowered her head and turned away from the group. The gravity of the situation had finally sunk in. Stranded, practically alone, and failed her goal after coming so close. _I'm so sorry my student. I could not help you this time._

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><p><em>An hour later...<em>

"Our phone snipers retraced the upload and were able to navigate through the immense web of decoy IPs and other attempts at concealing the source." Mactavish looked to his laptop on the desk, then back at Twilight, who was standing beside him. "It took some time, but we worked it back to a place on the outskirts of Denver, a small airfield south east of Denver International. Incidentally, there was a reported kidnapping of six individuals in that city a day prior to the upload of the video. Descriptions were vague, but witness reports only barely match those of your friends as seen in the video. Local police were not able to track down the culprits, but had kept a lookout for them."

Twilight looked at the laptop screen and read the patches of information from it. The map displayed a small digital map of the zone that the upload had been traced to. She took in the layout of the buildings situated on the field, memorising the names of the small streets that fed into them, committing every little bit she could into memory.

"The airfield was decommissioned about seven months ago, hence why it looks desolate and abandoned. Occasionally, a group of racers gather there to use the long runway as a drag strip. Outside of that though, the place is empty. I pulled satellite telemetry from around the time the video was supposedly uploaded." A thermal scan image from a military satellite flashed onto the screen, most of the hangers and structures completely dark except for one on the eastern side of the complex. A group of white spots were clustered inside, individual spots spread around the larger group. There was very little in the way of detail offered by the image, but it was enough.

Twilight's attention was drawn away from the captain and his laptop, to Shade and the rest of the team. After the initial brief of the situation had been concluded, and Twilight consoled in regards to the fate of her friends, the team had decided to commence an emergency mission to rescue them. For reasons unknown to even Twilight herself, she had volunteered to go with the team, much to the displeasure of Captain Mactavish, Ghost and even Shade. They had argued that with her status as a civilian, and the risk level of the mission, she would more than likely end up in harm's way. She had counter-argued that she would be the only way that the men could convince her friends that they were to be trusted, as well as be able to confirm that they were indeed her friends that they were rescuing.

The group of men had changed out of their usual set of clothing, the long sleeved combat shirts and camouflage pants, and had changed into something more casual looking: tee shirts, polo shirts, cargo pants and jeans. The lighter clothing allowed a better range of movement, and was also aimed to help look less intimidating to their objective. As Twilight was going with them, she had also changed into a simple black shirt and pair of blue jeans. She was given a plate carrier, clean of pouches and other attachments, and also given a sidearm in a drop leg holster. She had been told that the weapon was there for emergency only, and she was not required to carry it into the fight like everyone else. She had trained in the use of various pistols in the area of self defence, and was more than understanding of the damage such a weapon could do if mishandled or misused. She was hesitant to carry the weapon, but was confident that she could use it if she needed to.

"The plan is to fly in and touchdown as close as we can to the building. Once on the ground, we'll rush to the entrances and enter the structure through a synchronised dual breach. That should disorient any hostiles inside and give us the advantage. After we secure the hostages, we'll bring you in to confirm their identities. If they are who they say they are, then we'll bring them back to base for treatment and debriefing." Mactavish said to Twilight, bringing her back from her thoughts.

She turned to face him directly, a confident look forming on her face.

"When do we leave?"

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><p><strong>[insert dramatic music cue here]<strong>

**It's finally heating up. Probably another three or four chapters like this before HVP comes to an end! Updates should be more frequent given the massive increase of time I have available now.**

**Until next time,**

**TSO out!**


	6. 5 - Familiar Faces

**TSO here with a new chapter for HVP. Things here are starting to wrap up, probably in the next chapter or so. I'm glad you all have enjoyed this story so far. Shout's to my mate SpitfireUSN, as well as atarms and Ghost32494 for the reviews. You guys helped me keep this story alive, I love it every time I get a email saying that a review has been written.**

**Enjoy!**

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><p>The cool night's air was the only thing that could be considered comfortable in the worn down hangar. The small bunks that their captors had provided were practically canvas sheets stretched between two poles, the lights were dull and flickered on and off in random intervals, and some of the guard's cigarette smoke managed to infiltrate the room where they were confined.<p>

"Ah sure do hope that Twilight has it better than this. Can't stand to think how she'd be if she was in our place." Applejack muttered, resting on her bunk, staring into the ceiling absentmindedly. Her human form retained some familiar traits to her pony form, mainly her bigger, muscular build and blonde hair. She was also pleased to have kept her hat, which she thought looked better on her as a human than it did as a pony. Her clothing also reflected her farm heritage: a pair of jeans, work boots and a button-up flannel shirt with rolled up sleeves. "How are you takin' this Rare?"

Rarity rolled over onto her side, facing Applejack, and gave the blonde girl a look that conveyed her answer. Her purple hair was dishevelled, a mess of wild tangles and frayed ends as a result of the stress imparted during their kidnapping and subsequent imprisonment. Her simple yet elegant dress was covered in dirt and grease stains, the result of being thrown into the back of an old van used to move auto parts, and had a few tears in it around the bottom edge. She huffed at Applejack, then rolled back onto her other side, trying to find a comfortable position to lie in.

"Ah guess she's takin' it well." Applejack continued to stare into space, her mind fairly still in thought. Off to the side, she could hear a few muted whimpers as Fluttershy quietly sobbed into Rainbow Dash's shoulder. The poor girl had been scared to her bones when they first teleported across, but had made the adjustment fairly quickly after discovering that this world had many of the same animals that they did. She acknowledged that the humans ate meat, but did not partake in the consumption of such food herself; instead she stuck to the fruits and vegetables that she was more comfortable eating. But the kidnapping had completely shattered her newfound nerves, and as such left her as an emotional wreck for their entire ordeal. Her pink hair had become tangled and knotted, the result of Fluttershy constantly tugging at it and pulling it to hide behind.

Rainbow Dash held Fluttershy close to her, comforting her and trying to keep her calm. As her best friend, she was really the only one that could comfort her to the point where she could barely function. Without her, she may suffered a full-blown panic attack and possibly end up hospitalised or much worse. Her rainbow hair, while not as vibrant, was still recognisable, and was cut short to reflect her more tomboyish nature. She was more athletic in her stature, granting her greater speed, endurance and agility where it counted, similar to her traits back as a pony form. This was proven when she was responsible for catching a bag-snatcher during a trip to the markets in Denver. She had taken off like a rocket and leapt over objects like benches and low walls to apprehend the criminal. Rainbow caught the guy by leaping off a park bench and tackling him to the ground. The police had thanked her for her intervention, and the owner of the bag had even given her some money as a reward. Rainbow at first wanted to keep the money, but insisted that the owner keep it for themselves.

Pinkie Pie sat beside Princess Celestia, her usually curly pink hair now sitting straight and in a darker shade of pink. The kidnapping had taken a toll on the perpetually happy girl, especially due to the harsh treatment given to her by their captors. She had been repeatedly slapped and had her mouth taped shut after barraging the kidnappers with her usual antics and questions. Their actions had, by the looks of hit, shattered Pinkie Pie inside, and she remained unusually quiet for the rest of their ordeal. Occasionally she would speak up to ask about Fluttershy, or answer a question from Celestia, but otherwise remained still and silent.

That was until Pinkie Pie's hair started to curl back up and brighten up, to the surprise of Princess Celestia. Her left hand started to shake a little too, along with a left eyebrow twitch. Her trademarked 'Pinkie Sense' was acting up again, and Pinkie herself was having trouble interpreting it.

"P-p-princess," she started, her body now engulfed in a small shake. "I t-t-t-think something b-b-big is about to ha-a-appen!" As she finished, Celestia could make out a low rumbling noise in the distance. She could not recognise the sound at all, nor could she use her magic to try and see what the source of the noise might be. But if Pinkie's sense was anything to go by, they were in for something.

Twilight watched the ground below rush past through a pair of night-vision goggles. The green-coloured vision was strange to her at first, but she became accustomed to it. The tunnel vision that came with wearing NVGs however was not as easy to adjust to. Her and the rest of Shade's team were launching their rescue raid on the airfield in an attempt to save her friends. They were flying in on two MH-6 Littlebirds and one MH-60 Blackhawk. Twilight and Captain Mactavish were riding in the Blackhawk, which would carry Twilight's friends back to their base. The others would stay on the Littlebirds for the infiltration and exfiltration of the mission.

She flipped up the goggles from her eyes and set them to lock above her head on the helmet she was wearing. The added weight felt different, but was easy to tolerate. Captain Mactavish did the same with his goggles and then looked at his watch.

"We're about fifteen minutes from the target now." He keyed his radio to broadcast to the men on the two smaller helicopters. "Hotel Team, this is Hotel Six. Be advised, we are fifteen mikes from the objective. I want NVGs and PEQ's active five mikes out." Twilight studied the Captain in front of her, taking in what he wore and what he was using.

His weapon was a standard M4A1, with an integral suppressor protruding from the hand guard. A holographic sight sat on the top rail, a flashlight and infrared laser aiming module on either side, with a small foregrip underneath. She knew that the lasers could only be seen through infrared vision or night vision capable devices, such as her goggles or the cameras on the Blackhawk. Her own M9, the one she carried for purely defensive purposes only, was also fitted with a suppressor. They had explained to her that suppressed weapons would not only keep the noise down, but help prevent the muzzle flash from their gunfire conflicting with the use of their night vision.

"Hotel Six, five mikes from target." The pilot of the Blackhawk said, and Twilight instantly felt the change in speed and altitude as the Blackhawk settled for a landing. When she flipped the goggles back down, she could spot the twelve different beams from twelve different men on the two Littlebird helicopters dancing along the front wall of the closest hangar, the target hangar. The second they touched down, the men jumped off and rushed over to the small ditch that sat just before the ramp section that led to the hangar's main entrance. She could see a figure with a long-barrelled weapon shift his aim to a small box off to the side of the structure, and could faintly make out the small sparks generated by the bullet impacts that hit it.

Shortly after, the lights on the outside and inside of the hangar died. Archer had shot out the small power generator with his suppressed Mk 20 using armour-piercing rounds. Now in the cover of darkness, the remainder of the team quietly made their way to the hangar doors. She and Captain Mactavish waited in the Blackhawk as it continued its low and slow orbit around the hangar, and soon their view was blocked by the rook of the target hangar.

"Six, this is Echo-Five-Whiskey, we're stacked up and ready to breach." Shade's voice came through the radio, stating that they were ready to enter.

"Six, Oscar-One-Romeo, ready to breach." Ghost's voice followed Shades, conveying the same message.

"Six, Echo-Six-Mike, perimeter secure, no contacts in sight." Archer reported, having taken up a spot on the roof of the neighbouring hangar to get a better view of their surroundings.

"This is Six, all teams are clear to breach, remember that weapons are tight." Mactavish replied, his voice sounding cool and calm. Over the loud rotors, Twilight could swear that she heard the sounds of a small explosion, followed by a loud scream. While she panicked for a split second, she recognised the scream as one of Rarity's overly dramatic screams. Though in this instance, she guessed that her reaction could be well within reason.

The low rumbled had transitioned into a louder whirring noise over the course of fifteen minutes, the noise forcing the girls to bunch up together in an effort to keep each other calm. They all had no idea what was happing outside their cell.

Shade and Roach both stacked on either side of a doorway to the side of the hangar. Rook, Chemo and Royce were with them, behind Roach on his side of the door. Jayhawk, Ghost, Meat, Chemo and Scarecrow were on the main door on the front. Archer and Toad had both taken their marksman rifles and climbed to the roof of the neighbouring hangars to provide overwatch and security.

The plan was to perform a tandem flanking breach, catching any hostiles inside from two sides. They had to be careful with their shots, as the sheet metal walls of the interior and exterior of the hangar would definitely not stop stray rounds. This mission called for extreme accuracy and extreme fire discipline. Accurate weapons had been chosen, sights were swapped to provide the best in peripheral vision, and fire-modes set to semi-automatic, all these measures taken to ensure that they had the greatest chance in preventing stray weapons fire on their part. They could not guarantee the reactionary fire from the enemy, but as long as they were quick and clean, the risk would be relatively low.

"Six, this is Echo-Five-Whiskey, we're stacked up and ready to breach." Shade's radio call was followed by calls from Ghost and Archer, before Mactavish replied and gave them the go-order. With a press of a button, the doorway disappeared in a loud bang and cloud of smoke, flying into the hangar and slamming into the poor guard who was standing on the other side. Shade rushed in and stepped on the door, firing a quick succession of suppressed shots at the other guards nearby. In the far corner, he could see Ghost and the others do the same from their entry way, the door still hanging weakly on one hinge.

In the few minutes it took to reach the small room at the back of the hangar, they had managed to subdue and neutralise the ten guards inside. The men weaved between the small parked planes and tool carts and finally stacked up on the doorway to the storage room. Through the thin walls, Shade could faintly hear the sounds of someone crying. He held his hand up and signalled to the others that there could be civilians on the other side. Rook, seeing this, reached around to Royce's pack and grabbed the small battering ram they had brought with them. Using a standard breaching charge on a structure like this in such a small space, with civilians on the other side was way too risky. The battering ram allowed them to break the door down without putting others at risk, but at the expense of needing to hit the door a few times to get through.

Rook held the ram at the lock of the door, swung it back, and then swang it forward onto the door.

Celestia's automatic response to hearing the explosions outside was to gather the girls and put them as far away from the only door as possible. Telling them to bunch together and stay low, she took up a protective posture and waited for whatever it was to find them. In the minutes since the explosion, she could hear the occasional shout, the short reports of gunfire, and the screams of dying people outside. The rumbling noise outside was still there, but did little to block the noises inside the hangar.

Without warning, the sounds of violence outside their room stopped, and Celestia let out a breath she had not realised she was holding. However, the moment of peace was short-lived as the sound of something akin to a hammer slamming on metal rang out from the door, the door itself slightly shifting and opening. Another hit set the door swinging open violently, the source of the sound falling to the ground into the room. A group of scary looking men, holding weapons similar to what their captors had, rushed into the room and walked to them, weapons aimed towards them. The first man started screaming at them.

"Get on the ground now! Hands where I can see them!" The rest of them started shouting similar phrases, and Celestia found herself complying automatically. The commanding nature of their voices had the same effect as their captors, yet they also sounded less-hostile and more restrained. The shouts sounded more like loud requests than direct demands, and this made Celestia feel more at ease.

The first man stood over her and pushed his weapon to his side, letting it hang by the strap. He pulled out a small white cord and bound her hands with it. She was then helped to her feet by the man, who's grasp was firm but also gentle.

"Sorry ma'am, nothing personal, just the standard drill." Celestia turned her head and saw that the other girls were receiving similar treatment, their arms bound behind their backs, being led to the doorway by the other men. There was a sense of uniformity with this new group of men. While they all wore casual-looking clothes, their vests and helmets all bore similar markings and colours. One man wore a small red cross on his vest, and had a look of concern on his face as he watched the girls get led out to the main hangar. As they made their way past the planes, Celestia took note of the bodies of their captors on the ground, small pools of blood emanating from some of them. A few of the men stood by them, collecting pieces of equipment from their clothing and vests, taking apart their weapons, and covering the bodies with sheets.

It was outside where Celestia found the girls, a pair of men standing guard over them. One of them wore a skull-patterned mask over his face, the other a close-fitting helmet with strange tubes on the front. One of them greeted the man leading Celestia around.

"This the last one Shade?" The man with the helmet asked, a slight smile on his face.

"Yep, all six accounted for, Jayhawk. Where's Chemo, I want him to check them over after Sparks confirms their identities." Celestia's guide replied. She noted the strange sounding names the men had, each of them unlike what she and the girls had encountered during the month in the city. However, she had to admit that they themselves had strange names in comparison.

"Fair enough. Guess I should make the call then?" The masked one nodded to the man named Shade, who pressed a button on the vest he wore.

"Six, this is Echo-Five-Whiskey, area secure, HVPs in custody. It's time for Sparks to play her part." After he spoke, Celestia listened as the ever-present rumbling noise grew much louder, and watched as a strange looking vehicle touched down on the ground beside them, the wind generated from it slightly blowing them off balance. A pair of figures got out from the side and walked closed to them. In the darkness, she could not make out who they were, but as they neared she studied their features.

The first one, another man, wore similar clothes to the rest of the men. His posture and stance, as well as the body language of the other men, suggested that he was some kind of commander. His hair was cut very short, a strip of hair running across the middle of his head. His face bore a few scars, his arms also showing signs of previous injuries. His vest was similar to those of the others, with a few subtle differences. He stood tall, and to Celestia, was fairly intimidating.

The second person, however, was much smaller and was a female. Something about her resonated with Celestia, but she could not place it. Her vest was clean of any pouches or equipment, the black shirt and jeans fairly plain in appearance. She wore a helmet with the same strange tubes on the front, but the helmet itself was bigger and covered more of her head. But her fringe hung just below the brim, and its colours immediately registered with Celestia. They were dark purple, with a two-tone pink streak off to the side. She was about to speak when the girl spoke first.

"Princess, is that you?" Her voice just confirmed her suspicions, and Celestia did all she could to not burst into tears of joy at the sight of her long lost student.

Twilight ran the last bit of distance to Celestia as she saw that the Princess had indeed recognised her. She threw her arms around her and embraced her in a tight hug, making up for lost time and expressing her sheer delight in seeing her again. To Twilight, hugs felt better and more natural in a human form, her arms more than able to reach fully around other humans without any issue.

Letting her go, Twilight nodded at Shade, who was standing behind and to the side of Celestia. He stepped forward and cut the plastic cuffs that bound Celestia's wrists, no sooner was she free did she return the embrace to Twilight. Shade and Rook then went around and released the bindings off the other girls, who immediately ran over to Twilight and embraced her in a huge group hug. Twilight at this point at started crying at the feelings she was going through, mainly that of relief and joy of seeing her long lost friends once again.

Even Shade shed a few tears at the sight, even though he quickly regained his composure, lest he be called a big softy by anyone who saw him. Looking over at the captain, he was signalled that they had to go. Shade stepped close to the group of friends and interrupted their chatter.

"Sorry I have to break this up, but we need to go now. Twilight, take your friends to the Blackhawk with the Captain, I'll be riding back on the Littlebirds with the others." Twilight nodded in response, and started to lead her friends to the awaiting helicopter. Shade was about to walk off to his helicopter when Mactavish stopped him.

"You go with them, I'm sure Twilight will be more comfortable with you there instead of me."

"Thanks sir." Shade moved off and quickly caught up with Twilight and her friends. They were all apprehensive in boarding the helicopter, which was understandable as they probably had no idea what the Blackhawk was or what it did. A quick explanation by Twilight however put their minds at ease, the rainbow-haired one even going so far as to remark that she could fly faster than it. A quick reminder about how she lacked her wings left her silent for the remaining journey home, but Shade watched her face as she watched the landscape below, the sun starting to rise over the horizon, casting a glow over the land.

Twilight looked at each of her friends, and watched as they looked around them in a mixture of awe and fear.

"You have no idea how happy I am to finally see you girls." She said, using the headset intercom on the Blackhawk. Rarity attempted to reply through her own headset, but failed to key the microphone. All Twilight saw and heard were her mouth moving and the muffled sound of the helicopter's engine. She reached across and reminded Rarity about the push-to-talk button, who gave a small chuckle at her ignorance, and pushed the button to speak.

"The feeling is mutual, dear. I am very happy to see you after all this time, but I must say I wish it was under better circumstances." Rarity's voice trailed off towards the end, looking down as the memories replayed fresh in her mind.

"Say Twi', where have you been all of this time, and how come you were with these guys?" Rainbow spoke up, gesturing to Shade when she asked the second part of the question. Shade had kept his gaze out through the windows in the side as they talked, but looked at Twilight, interested in her answer.

"Well, it's a long story. These guys are soldiers, like the Royal Guard, but trained to higher standards and given tough missions around the world. They're considered the best of the best, and fight the worst of the worst, like we do with the Elements of Harmony. I bet they could probably give Discord a run for his money. Anyway, when I crossed over, I woke up to find myself taken hostage by a group of rebels in one of their weapon stockpiles. By chance, it was the same stockpile about to be raided by Shade and his team." She looked over to the soldier and smiled, then continued. "They were sent to destroy the building I was in, and had not expected to encounter anyone other than the rebels. They were surprised to find me, but took me back to their base and looked after me. The shock and stress of the accident and my capture had left me extremely fatigued, so when they rushed into my room and saved me, I passed out. Shade was the one who carried me out to their helicopter."

By this point, all of the girls and Princess Celestia had started listening, and now looked at the soldier sat beside Twilight. Rarity was the first to speak up.

"Well then, Shade, it seems that we all have to thank you for taking care of our dearest friend. You've done a good job, considering the circumstances." She nodded her head in appreciation, and Shade returned the gesture.

"What kinda' name is 'Shade', anyway?" Applejack asked, looking at the soldier with a critical eye. Twilight and Shade chuckled at the question, before Shade replied.

"It's actually a nickname. Long story how I got it, and we don't have the time. My actual name is Tom, Tom Williams."

"That's a nice name," Fluttershy's voice was barely audible through the intercom. "It suits you."

"So, you're a soldier," Rainbow Dash began. "Blow anything up recently?" This earned a laugh from Shade.

"Me? Not recently, that job goes to my mate Roach."

The rest of the flight was filled with banter between Shade and Twilight's friends, Twilight feeling happy that they were becoming more accepting of him and their world. Even the princess asked a few questions here and there, more to do with their treatment of Twilight than anything, but she still got involved, which pleased Twilight greatly. The helicopter approached the base and set down without any issues, the men quickly disembarking and leading their new guests to the briefing room.

After a quick debrief, Twilight felt that it was time for introductions.

"So, girls, allow me to introduce you all to the members of Hotel Team, Task Force One-Four-One." She waved her hand to the men behind her. "Guys, these are my friends from Equestria." She made her way through the group, starting with Rainbow Dash and finishing with Princess Celestia. Captain Mactavish and Ghost made a short salute to the princess, who easily returned the gesture, with slightly flushed cheeks. Twilight then worked her way through Shade and his team members, giggling at the reactions that Meat, Roach and Ghost received at the mention of their nicknames. When all was said and done, there was nothing left to do but socialise.

Shade walked over to Twilight, who was discussing some of the technology the Task Force used with Princess Celestia.

"... and that larger helicopter is called a Blackhawk. Despite the name, not all of them are painted black, and there are different specialised versions, like the Seahawk, used by navies for maritime operations and warfare, or the Ghosthawk, a stealth-capable version used to slip past radar networks and penetrate deep into enemy lines. Oh, hey there Shade."

"Hi Twilight," Shade said, and then looked at the Princess. "Ma'am, do you mind if I steal her away for a few minutes?" Celestia chuckled at his formality, and replied.

"Fine by me Shade, and please, just call me Celestia." Shade nodded his response and led Twilight outside to the cool morning air, the sun now higher above the horizon. The base was starting to wake up, with operators from other teams on their warm-up runs around the base. Twilight and Shade walked for a little while, and then stopped at the perimeter fences. Shade leant on the fence and let it take his weight, while Twilight sat down on the ground and leant back on one of the small concrete barriers that lined the fence.

"So, with your friends and the Princess here now, I guess you'll be on your way soon?" Shade said rather glumly.

"I guess so. I mean, if I can still harness my magic, odds are that the Princess can to, probably to a much greater extent than I can. And with the other element bearers here as well, she could potentially harness their strength and boost whatever magic she has. It's just a matter of when now."

"I had figured as much. You think she's got the magic reserves to do so though? I mean, your magic pretty much returned to normal about a month after we found you. Pretty sure that Celestia would have to wait the same amount of time, maybe a little less given her status."

"That's the thing, Shade. I was talking to her just before, and she had told me that they had actually spent the last month on Earth looking for me. The mere fact that they were captured, held hostage and then subsequently rescued by us was nothing more than mere chance. If they hadn't been out and about that day, they'd still be looking, and I'd still not know how much longer I'd be here for." Twilight hugged her legs close to her chest, resting her forehead on her knees. "When I asked her about how she was feeling, magically that is, she said that she could cast the spell in less than a day. She had cast the spell with assistance from Cadence and Luna back in Equestria, but here she can use the Elements of Harmony to the same effect."

"Sounds like we should start getting organised then." Shade righted himself from the fence and helped Twilight to her feet, and together they made their way back to the others.

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><p><strong>A little sappy at the end, but will probably be nothing compared to what I've got in motion for next chapter.<strong>

**TSO out.**


	7. 6 - Farewell

**Hey there guys, TSO here with the last 'story' chapter for HVP. Be warned, this is my first attempt at anything truly romantic/fluffy. It's a helluva lot easier to read it than it is to write it. I think I wrote five different versions of this chapter, and I feel that this was probably the best one out of them. I was certainly out of my element when writing this, I don't really do sappy stuff. But hey, the quality is for YOU to decide.**

**Anyway, enjoy!**

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><p><em>Two months ago...<em>

Shade had just returned from a training exercise in the field, and had dumped some of his equipment on the floor of his room upon his arrival. Strangely, Twilight was not there to be found, but that did not bother him that much. He was too tired to worry about that at the time. He changed into a clean set of casual clothes, a shirt and shorts, and started to decompress by doing a series of low-intensity push-ups and sit-ups. The burn of his muscles was soothing to him, and he quickly lost sense of time.

Twilight was making her way back from the recreation room, after spending some time with some of the members of Bravo Team. She was left in stitches after Neon and Exxon's attempt at stand-up comedy, at the expense of other soldiers like Klepto, Driver and Pharaoh. A few weeks into her stay, Shade realised how impractical it would be to hide Twilight from the rest of the force, so she was introduced to members of the other teams. She enjoyed the company of the other teams, serving as a relief from the antics of her new friends, and they all knew to respect her and look after her whenever Hotel was deployed.

She had befriended one of Bravo's assaulters, an American man by the name of Neon, and their common love of books was the main bond between them. He was responsible for Twilight becoming hooked on the Indiana Jones series of novels and films, a series that Twilight remarked was strikingly similar to the Daring Do series. As such, he lent his collection to Twilight, one of the books open in front of her as she walked to the room that she and Shade shared. Without looking, Twilight opened the door and walked in, tripping on the discarded rigging belt on the floor. She felt on top of Shade, still on his back after finishing a set of sit-ups. He caught her and stopped her from hurting herself, before his worn arms gave out, Twilight falling the last foot off the ground and coming to rest on his chest.

Twilight froze at the realisation of how close she was to her crush. Sure, she shared a few hugs here and there, but they only lasted on average a second, and were usually expected. But this was different. She had not gotten this close on a hug before, but here she was, practically pressed up against him on the floor. She could feel his rapid heartbeat through his chest, and could feel the gradual rise and fall of his lungs as he breathed. The sensation left Twilight a little light-headed, and as she lifted her head to look at Shade, the feelings overcame her. As if she was on autopilot, she leant forward and pressed her lips gently against his.

Shade was completely stunned by Twilight's arrival. He heard her walk in and was about to warn her about his belt, but was too late, and had to catch her before she fell on him. He caught her, a foot-wide gap between them, but the strain on his arms was too much, and his arms collapsed. Twilight fell down and landed on him, his body taking her full weight. To Shade, it was not that different from having a full five-day patrol load out strapped to his body. He was too tired and worn out to realise the subtle differences, like her heartbeat rising and her face flushing, or the shift in weight as she leant forward. But the feel of her lips against his instantly awakened his senses, his fatigue seemingly evaporating.

A few seconds passed before Twilight slowly backed away. The kiss had not been one loaded with passion, just an extended greeting kiss, but the action had conveyed more feeling than what would have normally been associated with it.

"Wasn't quite the welcome back I'm used to," Shade said with a slight smirk. He internally chuckled as he watched Twilight's eyes widen in shock. Without warning, she jumped off him and pushed herself to the door, back against it.

"Shade, I-I-I didn't mean-"She was cut off when Shade followed her to the wall and place a gentle hand over her mouth to shush her.

"It's fine, Twilight, no harm done at all." He smiled and paused for a second. "I actually didn't mind it that much." Twilight's eyebrows shot up at the surprising remark. "I missed you at the helipad, you know. I surprised to see that you weren't there like always."

Twilight stood against the wall for a few more seconds, trying to find some words. She composed herself and managed to answer, albeit with a wavering voice.

"I, uh, lost track of time while hanging out with the guys in Bravo. Neon leant me his latest Indiana Jones book to read." She was fidgeting with her fingers while trying to explain her absence.

"Oh boy, I should have never introduced you to Neon, I swear..." Shade laughed. "Look, it's ok Twilight. It's fine." He walked over to Twilight and wrapped his arms around her to hug her. "I know you like me like that-" Shade smirked as he could feel Twilight tense up in his embrace "-and I like you like that as well." He pulled away slowly to look her in the eyes, her half-lidded magenta eyes. As if they were both on autopilot, Shade and Twilight leant into each other for another kiss.

* * *

><p><em>0530 hours, 24 hours after the rescue.<em>

Twilight woke from her dream, clutching the pillow to her chest tightly. Memories like that night had filled her dreams while she had slept. That night in particular was important to Twilight, as that was the night where the pair of them had made their true feelings known to each other, even if they had not explicitly stated it. Twilight could not deny that she loved the soldier greatly, having spent around six months with him. She was there whenever he returned from missions, fatigued, battered and bruised, ready to help him back to his room to relax and unwind. She was there whenever he needed help organising pranks and other jokes on his fellow team members. And she was there when he needed someone to talk to, no matter what.

Twilight could tell that Shade really appreciated her for who she was and what she did for him and his for friends. And he had done so much in return for her as well. To avoid the hassles of being restricted to certain places on base, he had pulled strings and had her 'recruited' into the task force a week after recovery. Her official 'job' title was as an assistant-team manager, something that she was more than capable of doing. After a week of helping Captain Mactavish and Ghost organise deployment and training plans, and streamline certain reporting procedures, her assistance had been requested by the other teams and even higher up in the command chain. While hesitant, she was able to perform as requested, and soon was back with Hotel Team and helping them through their day to day life.

Thinking about leaving Shade and the team after all they've done for her upset her immensely. Hell, the thought of leaving Shade at all broke her heart. She wanted him to come with her, but realised how selfish that would have been. There was no way that Shade would have been able to easily fit in back home, plus she was not prepared to leave his team down one man. Twilight had heard many stories of all of the men in the force where just one man had made the difference in the fight. By bringing Shade with her, she would in effect put the rest of the team at risk.

So, she resigned herself to the fact that she was going home alone, relatively speaking. Sure, she had her friends and family, but Shade was different. She loved her friends, loved her family, but her love for Shade was different. Twilight knew he loved her back; otherwise he would be acting like the others would be towards her. Sure, they all liked her company and treated her like one of the guys, but Shade differently. He would relax more in Twilight's company, especially after a hard mission or long day. The actions of that night two months ago had confirmed his feelings, even though he had not explicitly said that he loved her. She could just tell. And it made Twilight feel even worse about leaving. _I wonder how he's taking it._

* * *

><p>Shade slowed down and took a break against one of the perimeter fences, having completed three laps of the base straight. He had been out for the last hour, working out and trying to clear his head. The news that Twilight was leaving to return home had hit him hard. From day one, he could feel something about her. It took months of getting to know her and spending time with her for him to realise it, culminating to that one night two months ago, when she had literally tripped over onto him and kissed him. That night was the night they had admitted their feelings for each other, and Shade would be lying if he said that he did not love Twilight.<p>

The prospect of loving a pony-turned-human girl had initially crossed his mind, but had been dismissed as it was not the physical form that attracted him; it was who she was inside that counted. She was kind, loyal, honest, trustworthy and even quite funny. While her initial shock to his job had scared Twilight away from him, she accepted it and even helped justify some of his actions, sometimes even better than Shade could by himself. She provided a fresh perspective on life, a life not tarnished by war, combat and death. A perspective that Shade wanted to fight hard for and strive to protect.

Now, she was going home, and while he understood that she had to go home and live the rest of her live there, he felt that it was too soon. In the back of his mind, he had considered going with her, but realised that he would be leaving his friends behind, putting them in danger and leaving them without a man to watch their back.

"I must say, I have a great amount of respect for you and your team, Thomas." A woman's voice caught him by surprise, making him jump and ready himself to face his attacker. Turning to face the voice's owner, he saw the older woman from the group he had rescued. _Princess Celestia, that's what Twilight said her name was._ Shade dropped his combat stance and resumed to rest against the fence. "Sorry if I scared you."

"It's fine ma'am, just surprised, that's all. You and Ghost might get along well if you can sneak up on him like that." They both shared a laugh, before Celestia stepped closer to Shade.

"You're upset it's time for Twilight to go back home." It was more of a statement than a question, and Shade chose not to respond. "I can understand that, the feelings you have for each other aren't as easily hidden as you think. If I'm being honest, I've never seen my student with such feelings like she has for you. It's quite adorable, yet it also breaks my heart knowing that I'll be separating the pair of you."

"It's not easy, even for me." Shade said quietly. "When I was seventeen years old, I left home for the Army, spending just under two months in basic training, followed by three years in an infantry regiment. After that, I served three years in the Commandos, before being selected for this task force, of which this is my second year. Since that time, I've probably only seen my family in person maybe ten times, each time for a few days maximum. No real chance to actually hang around with them, just enough to catch up with current family events and maybe go do something with them. If I wasn't overseas on deployment, I was at a base a long way away or on a training exercise." He took a moment to drink from his water canteen, and continued.

"In my time in the Army, I never had the chance or time to form a relationship with people outside of the military. Sure, I made friends within my units, and I tried to keep in touch with my friends from before I enlisted, but I never found the chance to actually see someone. I eventually gave up, and just focused on my job. Some would say that I was married to my work, and it was true. Until Twilight came along, that is.

"I saw something in her, felt something with her, something I couldn't explain at the time. Over the following months, she and I grew quite close. Two months ago, we both realised how we felt for each other, and we've been growing much closer since." He looked at Celestia with a slightly saddened expression. "I love her, to be perfectly honest with you. I'm pretty sure she loves me too, but we just haven't had the chance to tell her. And now that she's going home, I find myself conflicted."

"You want to tell her that you love her, but you're afraid that if you do, she'll return home with a crushed heart. If you don't tell her, you'll regret it dearly, not knowing for sure if she loves you back." Celestia guessed, to Shade's surprise.

"It's not so much the confirmation that I'm seeking, we both know that we love each other. But we actually haven't said 'the three words', you know?" He sighed in frustration. "I just don't know what to do, and it frustrates me. Every time I've had a difficult choice to make, I've been able to make it, and it's always the right one. Why can't I make it now?"

"Maybe those previous instances had been time-critical, and that a delay in the decision making process would create more problems. Without the time to really think and process the outcomes of each option, you fall back on your training and instinct, allowing those aspects of your life to take over and make the choice for you." Shade had not thought of that, but it felt right to him. "And the options presented to you in those moments were clearly black-and-white, easier to differentiate between and choose. This dilemma you find yourself in now, it is not as easy as you thought it would be, and both choices have their own benefits and drawbacks."

"That's what makes it hard. I want to make Twilight happy, but each way I look will end in some form of heartbreak, for both of us." He sat down on and leant against the fence. "For the first time in ages, I honestly have no idea of what to do."

"Thomas, you will find that the answer will come to you soon enough. And you will not regret your choice." Celestia turned and walked away, leaving Shade to his thoughts. As she disappeared out of view, he looked up and for the first time that morning, his mind was clear and his decision made.

* * *

><p><em>1300 hours<em>

Hotel Team and some other operators from the task force were gathered with Twilight and her group of friends, standing on the cleared aircraft apron and saying their farewells before Celestia cast the spell to return the group home. Given the short amount of time spent, the girls had all managed to befriend the men, Pinkie Pie even managing to earn the respect of resident pranksters Meat and Royce. Rainbow Dash had spent some time with a few of the pilots on base, and had fallen in love with the MH-6 Littlebird helicopter, the rush of the open cockpit and low altitude more than satisfying her desire to fly. Rarity had taken a liking to some of the less-gaudy camouflage patterns that some of the men wore, and had managed to talk Captain Mactavish into giving her a few sets of Multicam uniforms for her to experiment with back home.

Applejack was talking to both Jayhawk and Scarecrow, who she had matched in a round of hand-to-hand sparing earlier that morning. Though she had taken a few hits herself, she was able to pin the Navy SEAL and Delta Force operator by herself in their respective attempts, stunning the rest of Hotel Team and giving Meat and Royce ammunition to tease the two Americans at a later date. Fluttershy had bonded with Chemo, breaking his normally stand-offish attitude and had discussed first-aid and animals with her. The notion that Chemo was a sucker for cute kittens and puppies had surprised the others, but the look that Fluttershy had given Royce when he made a smart remark had shut the others up.

Twilight and Shade were off to the side, a small folder under Twilight's arm. It contained the printed report that Twilight had compiled over her time with the task force, as well as various pictures taken by her and the others. A small bag of her other belongings, things she had been given throughout her stay, rested on her back.

"Thanks again, Shade, for everything. I can't imagine what might have happened if you guys didn't find me." There was a small glint in Twilight's eyes, her eyes slightly watering at the build up of emotions inside her.

"Trust me, don't imagine that. It wouldn't be pretty." Shade said, with a small chuckle but a tone of seriousness.

"I told Celestia about this report, she seemed eager to read it after we return. She also said that I'll be able to keep it and the reference material after she's finished with it, as a reminder of my time."

"That's good of her."

"It was actually a condition for her to agree to; otherwise I wouldn't have let her have it in the first place."

Shade's eyebrows shot up at the statement. "I guess Ghost has taught you a little bit more than 'enhanced questioning'."

"Nope, that was the Captain actually. He told me that you have to set terms before the agreement, instead of making requests after the fact."

"Guess that makes sense."

"Knowing the Princess though, she would have given it back to me afterwards anyway. She understands how important the report and its contents are to me."

"Yeah, I wouldn't want to find out what happens if she planned otherwise." The two shared a laugh at the thought. Shade's laugh trailed off as his mind moved to an argument he was having with himself.

_... Damn it Shade! Tell her before she's gone for good!_

_No, it'll feel forced and I don't particularly want to subject her to that before she leaves._

_...So, you'll leave her full of doubt as to if you really loved her or not... I can totally see how that is better than admitting your feelings._

_It's not so much the admission. I mean, that kiss two months ago pretty much confirmed it._

_... Then what's the real problem? She loves you. You love her. You know it, she knows it. I don't see the problem here?_

_The problem is what she may or may not feel when those three words come into play. You and I both can tell that she doesn't necessarily want to leave here, and she's upset that she's leaving the person she loves behind._

_...So your plan is to avoid saying 'I love you' and somehow try to avoid crossing that particular line in the sand. Which, I must say, is pointless, considering some of the other lines that you and her have cross-_

_I don't see how that is the major problem. We're not the only one to do that kind of thing before saying 'I love you'. It's not like we've actually slept together. We've only shared the bed a handful of ti-wait, why are you giving me shit about this?_

_...Technically, YOU are giving YOURSELF shit about it. I'm just a voice you fabricated to internally debate with this morning._

_I'm getting a headache now. Look, I'll figure this out and whatever happens will be up to fate._

_...Well, don't take too long. Looks like the boss is calling you guys back over. Seems like it's finally time. Good luck!_

_Thanks for your help._

_...Anytime.._

Sure enough, Captain Mactavish was indeed waving over to them to bring them back to the group. Celestia began to explain what was about to happen, making sure that everyone who was not travelling was far enough away as to avoid an accidental teleportation. As she talked, Twilight and Shade stood by each other's side, arms around each other's backs and holding the other tightly.

"Ok men, you heard the Princess: final farewells and then stand back. You have two minutes." The men quickly made their way to say their final goodbyes and move back to a safe distance, leaving Shade and Twilight as the last pair to separate.

"I guess this is it?" Twilight asked, Shade still holding her in an embrace.

"Sadly, it is. I'll miss you, you know that right?"

"Of course, and I'll miss you too." The pair tightened their hug, before easing off until they were holding hands.

_...This is it! Take the shot!_

"Twilight?"

"Shade?"

"I love you." It was all Twilight could do to not burst out in tears again, instead opting to close the distance between them and hug him again. She stood up on her toes so she could speak into his ear.

"I love you too." She pulled back and then placed a kiss on Shade's lips, before wiping a tear away and letting go of the soldier. She smiled at him, reluctantly turning around to walk back to her friends. Shade felt as if a massive weight had been lifted from his chest, and turned to walk back to his friends.

The two groups stood about ten meters apart from each other, far enough that any magical spill over would not affect the men, but close enough for the groups to shout farewells as Twilight's group made their departure. The soldiers watched as Princess Celestia conjured her inner magic and began to cast the spells needed to take them home. As the spell grew stronger, a golden glow started to encapsulate the bodies of Twilight and her friends, the light generated from the glow slowly getting brighter and brighter until it matched the light of the sun. Before that final moment, Shade and Twilight shared one final look at each other, their eyes sending their very final farewell.

In a bright flash, the space that the girls had occupied had cleared, leaving slight burn marks on the tarmac. The men took a moment to reflect on what had just happened, before departing to continue with the rest of the day's activities. Shade was eventually left with Captain Mactavish standing beside him.

"It always hurts when you have to leave your loved ones. Hurts even more when your loved ones leave you. At least you can take solace in the fact that you know for sure that she's going to someplace where she'll be safe, sound and cared for." Mactavish patted Shade on the back before he started to walk away. "But while they have left you physically, as long as you never forget them, they will never truly have gone."

* * *

><p><em>2000 hours<em>

Shade practically collapsed on his bed, the events of the day had sapped him of most of his energy. After the departure, Mactavish had thought it best to take the event off of their minds by having them run drill after drill after drill. To the man's credit, it had worked, but now as Shade lay virtually wrecked from the training, he could still smell Twilight's scent on his sheets. The memories flooded back to him, and Shade felt even more exhausted, this time more emotionally than physically.

As he sat up to reach for his canteen, a small glint caught his eye. Curious, he stepped over to his desk where a small strange object sat on a piece of paper. It was a small crystal, lavender in colour, hanging from a chain similar to what his dog tags hung from. His curiosity piqued, he picked up and read the letter.

_Shade,_

_I write this to thank you once more for caring after Twilight Sparkle during her time on your planet. I could not have picked a better group of people for her to stay with, given the circumstances of her arrival._

_I was not that truthful when I spoke with you that morning. I did have prior knowledge of your growing relationship with Twilight, I knew before my own arrival onto Earth. My sister, Luna, possesses the abilities to view and partially manipulate the dreams of those who sleep in our land. When I was able to trace Twilight's location, my sister took upon the mission of ascertaining whether or not she was safe. When she had accessed her dreams, we were all quite shocked but relieved at what we all saw._

_Her dreams were more memories of her times spent with you, and as the time passed, we saw a common link in quite a few of her dreams: a male being that she had grown quite fond of, and who I later had the pleasure of meeting: you._

_I was a little doubtful as to the true nature of her feelings, but after seeing the pair of you in person, my suspicions were confirmed and a few of my fears realised. I truly did not want to separate you, but as you both must have realised, there would have been no real positive outcome if you were to stay with each other, on either of our worlds._

_However, I felt that seeing Twilight will be bringing home quite a few physical reminders of you and her time on Earth, it would only be fitting that I leave behind a keepsake for yourself. This crystal contains some of Twilight's magical aura, enough for you to replay any of her memories of her time with you in your mind. Just hold it to your head and think of her and the spell should activate._

_Once again, I thank you for looking after my dear student, and also for saving our own lives as well. I believe that luck was the only circumstance that brought our two groups together._

_Regards,  
>Princess Celestia<br>Goddess of the Sun, Equestria._

Shade picked up the small crystal necklace and looked at it. With a small smile, he put it on, letting it hang around his neck, the crystal bumping against his tags.

_Where ever you are now Twilight, I will always love you. Stay safe..._

* * *

><p><strong>And that's it. Technically that's the end of HVP. I am going to write up an epilogue of sorts, but it shouldn't be as long as previous chapters.<strong>

**Also have ideas for two potential follow-ups to HVP. One is a collection of segments from Twilight's report, the other is a sequel-ish story. For the report, if you have any requests for anything Twilight might have covered in particular, please let me know.**

**TSO out!**


	8. Epilogue - Moving On

**I couldn't leave the story hanging at something sappy like that. If you know me, you might have seen me develop a penchant for the action/dramatic style of writing. So, here I am, leaving you with an epilogue. Not going to say anything more until later.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

><p><em>Rio De Janiero, Brazil<br>Approximately four months after the return of Twilight Sparkle.  
>0140 hours local time...<em>

"You know, I think this is the first mission where I've enjoyed having to wait around for the target. Granted, the weather stinks, but at least we're comfortable." Rook said, reclining in the passenger seat of the black Range Rover that Captain Mactavish had assigned them. Shade sat in the driver seat, peering through the dark and rainy night through a set of infrared binoculars. "Then again, Meat and Royce get the fun job. We're just here to catch the runners." Hotel Team had been deployed on a mission to Brazil, and were spread around the international airport in Rio. Shade and Rook were parked on the side of a service road that led to one of the general aviation hangars, where they had been for the last four hours.

Shade set down the binocs and looked at his partner, shaking his head. "You do realise that the objective of this mission is to intercept a large shipment of stolen Stingers, Javelins and SCAR rifles, right? Odds are that whoever is having them imported will have payed off customs and security, will spread the load out on different aircraft, will load the weapons onto different vehicles, and depart on separate routes. While those two are on the ground in the immediate area of the target, we're to make sure that no-one leaves or enters the exchange. Once all the cards are in play, then we pounce."

"Speaking of cards, I've got a vehicle approaching from behind us." Sure enough, as Shade turned around and peered through the binocs, he could make out the shape of a luxury sedan growing closer. Shade clicked on his lapel microphone to inform the rest of the team.

"Guys, this is Shade. I've got an unknown victor approaching the target area. Single victor, type is a Chrysler Three-Zero-Zero-Charlie. Can't specify number of occupants at this time."

"Tally on victor, Shade. Toad and I have him on our sensors. We're picking up a total of four passengers, no weapon signatures at this time." Archer informed over the radio. The two snipers had set up on an abandoned control tower that allowed for perfect coverage of the field. The bad weather had not deterred the pair from climbing up and setting up shop to watch over the field for a number of hours. "Looks like they're making their way to the target. Whoever these guys are, we didn't know about them."

"Looks like the others didn't either," said Royce over the radio as the car drove into the hangar where the last of the weapons were being unloaded. "Wait, I can see the face of one of the passengers, give me a second to verify his ID." The seconds dragged on like minutes before Royce returned to the radio. He was frantic, the sounds of gunfire audible in the background. "Captain, we've been compromised. Meat and I are moving to point delta!" Shade, as he heard those words, threw the binoculars into the backseat and prepared their vehicle to move. He had failed to realise that another vehicle had crept up behind them, the matte black paintjob concealing them in the rain.

"This is Hotel Six, all members, abort mission, move to pre-planned regroup points and await for further instruction."

Shade threw the Ranger Rover into reverse, covering two meters of ground before ramming into the vehicle behind them. Rook and Shade shouted in surprise as Shade shifted into second and peeled out, the second vehicle switching their lights on and following in pursuit.

"Who the fuck was that?!" Shade shouted as he moved onto the main road that ran to the south of the airport. His answer was answered by a number of rounds fired from the vehicle, shattering the back window of their vehicle.

"I don't know, but they won't live long enough!" Rook shouted back as he pulled an MP7 from under his seat. He pulled the lever that allowed the seat to recline, and flattened the back against the rear seats. As Shade sped through the streets, Rook took aim using the rear headrests as support, and started to return fire. This served to make their pursuers even more aggressive, and Rook shouted as they closed in to ram them off the road. The heavy Range Rover wobbled off course for a second, before Shade regained control.

"Hold on Rook!" Shade turned off the main road and crossed three lanes of oncoming traffic, taking them onto the small freeway that fed to the west of the airport. The pursuing vehicle followed closely, narrowly missing a truck that was in the last lane. The freeway started to elevate off the ground and bend around to follow the coastline, all the while Rook was firing at the chasing vehicle, with his rounds making little difference.

Shade looked back for a second to see where they were, and returned his focus to the traffic ahead of him. Without warning, a car in front of him pulled ahead, forcing Shade to hit the brakes and turn to avoid a collision. At the same time, the pursuers rammed the back end of the Range Rover, flipping it and sending it into a roll. The Range Rover rolled across all four lanes of the freeway, flipping over the edge and landing in the water below. Water started to flood as Shade slowly regained consciousness from the impact, hanging from his seatbelt as the car was inverted.

Rook was spread across the roof, still unconscious from the impact, the water flooding around him.

"Rook!" Shade half groaned and half shouted, winded as a result of the seatbelt locking him in place. "Rook, wake up damnit!" He failed to respond to his cries, so Shade tried for his radio. "Captain, this is Shade. We have a man down, our car went into the water!" Static formed the reply, his radio damaged from the seatbelt as well. Shade kept Rook above the rising waterline, and desperately tried to open one of the doors, but the pressure difference from the inside of the car to the outside prevented him from doing so. Accepting his fate, Shade closed his eyes and grabbed for the small crystal that hung around his neck. He held it to his head and thought of Twilight, wanting his last memories to be of her and not of the inside of the car.

The water rose above his head, and Shade slowly lost the ability to hold consciousness. As the blackness started to fade in, the last thing he saw was a flash of purple.

* * *

><p><em>Golden Oaks Library, Ponyville, Equestria<br>That same time..._

Twilight woke from a fitful night's sleep. The dream, or more accurately, a nightmare had consumed her mind, the images leaving her afraid but confused. She had suffered from a few mild nightmares ever since her return four months ago, and attributed them to some of the stories and events that she saw with Task Force 141. Generally speaking, humans were capable of some horrendous atrocities, made clear when Captain Mactavish had reluctantly taught her about some of the major wars in human history. Some of the images she saw of the Holocaust had been cemented in her mind, unable to comprehend why such people would commit such an act.

This latest dream, however, was unlike the others. It was much shorter than the others, lasting only a few minutes, and she was not in the dream itself. Instead, she was watching through the eyes of another person, merely an observer who was watching and listening to the events that unfolded around her. The dream had started with her looking out through the back of a vehicle, the rear window shattered for some reason unknown to her. Another vehicle followed closely, occasionally a staccato set of flashes erupting from one of the windows.

A set of flashes had erupted from immediately in front of her, and she saw in her 'hands' was a weapon, a sub-machine to be somewhat precise. She was firing at the car chasing them, and it was firing back. They had driven onto a major roadway, trying to escape the pursuers, when the car she was in suddenly and without warning swerved to the side. Time slowed down as she watched the black car ram into the rear of her car, and looked in horror as they began to roll over and over and over again, rolling off the side of the road and falling into the water below. This was the last thing she saw before she woke up in her bed.

Something about the entire dream felt strange about it, but she could not place what it was exactly. Making a mental note of the dream, Twilight moved to lie back down and attempted to fall back to sleep.

She had not seen the purple flash that burst from across the town.

* * *

><p><strong>And there we go. Oh, what could that purple flash mean?<strong>

**(Seriously, if you can't see the answer, you need a good slap on the face.)**

**Anyway, this should serve as a teaser to the eventual sequel to HVP (name undecided just yet). And as for the report-style fic, I'm changing my mind and rolling with something different, similar to how "The 141 Archives" is set up. It'll be a collection of one-shots in no apparent order, but this time be related to HVP. Some may be memories, some might be report segments. We'll see.**

**TSO out!**

**[UPDATE - The sequel has now been released, under the name of "Foras Admonitio".]**


End file.
